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I'ORTRAll OF COLUMBUS. 

. . - V 1..' ■ :'■ • ; -.'0. U'"' 
^Fi-^m the ^^ersailles gallefy.' Engraved on steel by Paolo 

Mercuri, from the ancient portrait supposed to have been 
painted by Jan Van Eyck, »>f Bruges, while Columbus was 
at the court of Portugal. 

The original- of the portrait is in the "Voyages'" of De Bry, 
which he says was painted by direction of the King and 
Queen of Castile, and stolen from the Council of the 
Indies. De Krv, in the preface to his "Voyages,'" Frank- 
fort, 1595, says: "Of this portrait I have had the good 
fortune to obtain a copy, since finishing the fourth book of 
this work, through a friend who had received it from the 
artist himself; and it has been my desire, kind reader, to 
share this pleasure with you, for which purpose 1 have 
caused it to be engraved in a reduced form on copper by 
my son with as much care as possible, and now offer it for 
3-our inspection in this book. And, in truth, the portrait of 
one possessing such excellence deserves to be seen by all 
good men, for he was upright and courteous, pure and 
noble-minded, and an earnest friend of peace and justice." 




Columbus 
flDemodal 




PUBLISHED BY THE JOINT COMMITTEE OF 

(Tbc datboltc Club of mew l^orl^ 

AND 

XLbc TUntteD States Catbolic Ibistorical Society 




tVEVOM^^^^COjM 



NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO 

Benziger Brothers 

PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE 

1893 



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COPYRIGHT, 1093, 

BY THE CATHOLIC CLUB OF NEW YORK AND 

THE UNITED STATES CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



INTRODUCTION. 



INTRODUCTION 

BY 

PROF. CHARLES GEORGE HERBERMANN, PH.D., LL.D. 




ONG before Pericles pronounced his immortal 
oration, nations had publicly honored their heroes. 
The temples and obelisks of Egypt herald the 
glories of the Pharaohs, the palaces of Nineve 
the exploits of its mighty conquerors. Since the 
days of the Athenian statesman, also, peoples, ancient and 
modern, have had and celebrated their great men. But 
resplendent as is the fame of Alexander and Caesar, of 
Napoleon and Wellington, they fought and wrought for 
their own country, and they were honored chiefly by their 
own countrymen. The four hundredth anniversary of the 
discovery of America revealed to the world a spectacle new 
in history or annals. With one accord the nations of two 
continents united in doing homage to the great Genoese dis- 
coverer, and in exalting his deathless achievement. All 
seemed to feel that Columbus and his fame belong, not to 
one nation, but to mankind. Italy rejoiced because she gave 
him birth ; Portugal because she offered him hospitality; 
Spain because she furnished him a fleet. All Europe felt that 
she owed him thanks, because his genius and energy opened 
to the Old World the treasures and resources of the New. 
We of the New World feel that had there been no Columbus 
there might have been no Washington. Rightfully, therefore, 
the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America 
has become an international jubilee, a festival in which the 
men of two worlds, without distinction of race or country, 
joined warmly and sincerely in honoring the name of 
Columbus. 

But the quadricentennial of the discovery of America 
was no expression of mere sentiment. It was an ac- 



knowledgment of the transcendent importance of Columbus' 
work, a recognition of the greatness of the man and of his 
representative character in history. Columbus stands on the 
borderland of the Middle Ages and modern times. His 
birth, probably, falls a few years before the Turks took 
Constantinople and Guttenberg invented the art of printing 
from movable types ; his death; a few years before the un- 
fortunate schism precipitated by the Monk of Wittenberg 
shattered the unity of the Christian world. Placed, there- 
fore, on the confines of these two periods, like the evening 
star he reflected the radiance of the waning, like the morning 
star he heralded the coming glories of the dawning day. As 
the offspring of the one he embodied what was great in the 
ages of faith ; as the precursor of the other he contributed 
not a little to stimulate and shape the course of much that 
is best in modern progress. 

Columbus was the offspring and the representative of medi- 
aevalism. The spirit which inspired him to face and sur- 
mount the thousand dangers and difficulties that imperilled 
the success of his enterprise, was the spirit of chivalry, the 
spirit of the knight errant. Proud, like the mediaeval lord, 
he spurned every reward except that which he felt to be 
worthy of his merits. Unswervingly brave like the knight, 
he bowed neither to the opposition of courts nor to the 
mutiny of his followers, but confident in right and truth, 
conquered success. The science which guided him on his 
long and weary way was the science of the Middle Ages, 
the science fostered by the Church and nursed by monas- 
teries and monks. The heir of Nicholas of Cusa and John 
Miiller of Konigsberg (Regiomontanus), of Behaim and Tos- 
canelli, he used the mediaeval science of astronomy and cos- 
mography as the hand-maidens of the art of navigation. 
From them he learned the rotundity of the earth, from 
them and the mediaeval seamen who preceded him he bor- 
rowed the mariner's compass, the cross-staff and the astrolabe. 
His exploring instinct, also, the Genoese mariner inherited 
from the men of the Middle Ages. Long before his days, 
in the thirteenth century, the Franciscans Piano di Carpine 
and William Rubruquis had reached Tartary and India, and 



Marco Polo had penetrated to China. The zeal and energy 
of Prince Henry, the navigator, had borne fruit in the Por- 
tuguese discoveries along the western coast of Africa, and in 
1487 Bartholomew Dias had discovered the Cape of Good 
Hope. The conception of reaching India and Japan by sea 
was appropriated by Columbus from the Portuguese sailors 
trained in the ideas of Prince Henry and King John H. 
The religious zeal which animated Columbus was the spirit 
of Christendom in the days of its unity. Filled with devo- 
tion to the Church, he never forgot that it was his first 
duty to spread the Kingdom of Christ. Like those types of 
mediaeval heroism, Godfrey of Bouillon and Tancred, he was 
filled with undying enthusiasm to free the Lord's sepulchre 
from the power of the Moslems. The loyal son of the one 
undivided Church, he sailed from Palos blessed by her priests, 
and his first care when, after months of bitter struggles, 
he set foot on the soil of the New World, was to plant 
Christ's cross and consecrate the newly found land to His 
service. Who will deny that the famous Genoese was a 
true son of the ages of faith and of chivalry ? Who fail to 
recognize in him the embodiment of all that was best in the 
Middle Ages ? 

But regard the figure of Columbus from another point of 
view, and we are struck at once by his many modern traits, 
and impressed with the close connection between his 
career and the course of modem science. Convinced of the 
correctness of his cosmographic views, neither the coldness 
of patrons nor the opposition of the world shook him in his 
convictions. Time itself did not dampen his ardor to test by 
experiment his scientific opinions. Is not this the spirit of 
the modern investigator? Four times Columbus braved the 
perils of the sea, and trusted himself to men more treacher- 
ous than the ocean, to prove the correctness of his theories. 
Can modern science produce more brilliant examples of courage 
and perseverance? In his methods Columbus, while true to 
the mediaeval principle of authority, appealed to observation 
and fact as arguments of decisive importance. If, to support 
his theories that the extent of ocean between the west of 
Africa and the Indies was slight as compared with the 

iu 



vastness of the old continent, he cited Aristotle and Averroes, 
Esdras and Seneca, and if he founded his scheme largely on 
the authority of Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly, it is also true that, 
both at Porto Santo and at Lisbon, from his sailor relatives, 
and the most experienced mariners of the day, he gathered 
facts, indicating the existence of fertile inhabited lands to 
the westward. Again and again he dwelt on the fact that 
carved wood, strange trees, unknown species of reeds, nay, 
the corpses of two men unlike any race of the Old World, 
had drifted from the west to the Azores. How could he 
have anticipated more signally the methods of the modem 
explorer ? How modern, too, was Columbus' manner of deal- 
ing with a phenomenon that might well have struck earlier 
mariners as an ill-boding prodigy — the continuous variation of 
the magnetic needle on his first voyage. The Genoese sailor 
sought an explanation in science and made it the starting point 
of improved navigation. 

To these traits which Columbus has in common with 
modern men of science, add the restless zeal, the enthusiasm 
which impelled him from one enterprise to another. Voyage 
followed voyage ; neither storms nor shipwreck, neither the 
rebellion of his men, nor the persecution of superiors, nor 
the base ingratitude that made the man who had given a 
world to the Spanish Sovereigns a chained prisoner, lessened 
his fiery ardor. Age itself did not cool it. Though fast ap- 
proaching the allotted three score and ten, though unjustly 
stripped of his hard-earned rewards and honors, he could not 
settle down to a life of inactivity and allow others to complete 
the discovery he had made. A fourth time he defied the 
terrors of the ocean, and the treachery of the base adven- 
turers, into whose hands destiny had thrown him. Why ? To 
extend his explorations and make new discoveries. What 
wonder if such enthusiasm should prove infectious ? if the 
spirit of Columbus should not only incite the men of his 
own time, but, so to say, appear again and again in the 
explorers of later centuries ? Review the gallant company 
that followed in his wake. Pinzon, Vespucci and Solis de- 
rived from the Admiral himself the inspiration which sent them 
across the Atlantic to seek the western passage to India. Is 

Iv 



it too bold to assume that the success of Columbus was 
the goad that, in 1497, spurred on Vasco da Gama to find the 
way to India ? Some twenty years later the spirit of Colum- 
bus descended on Ferdinand Magellan, that prince of navi- 
gators, and guided him to success and fame as the first 
circumnavigator of the world. Sebastian Cabot and Hendiick 
Hudson we shall mention as the next links in this brilliant 
chain of the great Admiral's successors. They, too, were 
stimulated to undertake their voyages by Columbus' idea of 
finding a westward passage to India; only while Columbus 
and those who immediately followed him directed their 
course southward, the Cabots and Hudson sought by a 
northwest passage to reach that land of gold and of spices, 
Hudson's name suggests Frobisher's and Baffin's and Davis', 
and a long series of staunch-hearted seamen, until we come 
to the great Arctic explorers of the nineteenth century, the 
Sir John Franklins, the Markhams, the Kanes, and the 
Pearys. But why go into further detail ? A similar coup- 
ling of names, a similar tracing of the thoughts that in- 
spired them, would show that the seed sown by the Genoese 
discoverer has borne fruit not only in America and India, 
but likewise in Australia and Africa. Wavelike one explo- 
ration and discovery follows another, and perhaps it is no 
exaggeration to say that to the impulse given by Columbus' 
achievement the wave of discovery that has swept over Cen- 
tral Africa owed its being. In this way we realize how 
closely connected with the geographical ideas and discoveries 
of modern times, nay, of our own days, is the great deed of 
the Genoese discoverer. 

From another point of view, also, Columbus has been the 
herald of modern grandeur. We read in history of the com- 
mercial greatness of Carthage, of Athens, of Venice, of the 
Hanse towns. Still what are the commercial enterprises of 
Carthage and Athens and Venice when compared to the 
gigantic commercial undertakings of the nineteenth century ? 
Our merchants and capitalists pierce mountains, cut conti- 
nents in twain, and almost girdle the earth with railroads. 
Only a few years have passed since the Comte de Lesseps 
filled the world with his fame. Why ? Because he had es- 



tablished a new, a shorter and easier route to the far East ; 
he had revolutionized the course of trade with China and 
India. The conception of uniting the Mediterranean with 
the Red Sea was not de Lesseps' conception. A Pharaoh 
in hoary antiquity had conceived the plan, if he did not 
realize it. De Lesseps' merit consisted in successfully digging 
the Suez Canal. But to Columbus the world of commerce 
owes one of the most pregnant schemes the human mind 
has ever conceived. He proposed boldly to break with tra- 
dition ; to seek a new route to the East, to reduce by 
thousands of miles the distance between Spain and Cipango, 
and thus to secure for the Spaniards the commerce of the 
East. The imperfect geography of his time deceived him as to 
the distance ; for this error he was not responsible. But 
his idea from a commercial point of view was not only 
original, but grand. It was essentially in harmony with the 
spirit of our own day. Think of it ! By a single stroke he 
thought to place in the hands of Spain the priceless traffic 
of the East. And the means? To turn the prows of his 
ships towards the West instead of towards the East. This 
original, this brilliant conception was worthy of a great re- 
ward, and Columbus deserved to be the discoverer of a new 
world he did not seek. 

Such, too, was the feeling of America and Europe when 
the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America 
came. With one accord the men of many lands commem- 
orated the event, and honored the discoverer. Historians, 
antiquarians rummaged amid the dust of libraries to find 
new light on the fateful undertaking ; historians told again 
the thrilling story of the finding of a new world ; mechanics 
reproduced to a nicety the world-famed caravels that carried 
the daring mariners to fame and success ; artists immortal- 
ized on canvas or in marble the discoverer and his achieve- 
ment. Statues were set up, triumphal arches built, and mon- 
uments erected. Cities and states vieing with one another 
organized illuminations, pageants, processions. The poet was 
inspired by his muse to sing the noble theme, the orator 
rolled forth noble periods to add to the splendors of the 
universal jubilee. Lastly, the Church, proud of the faithful 



son who had disclosed a new world to thousands of her 
suffering children, threw open the portals of her minsters, 
made her organs peal forth anthems in his honor and bade 
the most eloquent of her ministers announce the true sig- 
nificance of the hero and of his mission. So it came about 
that the fourth centennial of the discovery of America be- 
came a universal holiday, such as the world has never be- 
fore beheld. 

To describe the details of the festival as it was celebrated 
in the Old World and the New would require volumes. We 
can only cast a hasty glance at it. In Europe, Spain and 
Italy, as was proper, were foremost in doing homage to the 
great Admiral. Genoa, whose statue of Columbus is perhaps 
the finest monument erected in his honor, did not forget on 
this occasion to show how proud she is of her illustrious 
son. On October 12th cannons, military music, the ringing 
of bells and impressive religious solemnities inaugurated the 
jubilee in Madrid. Through streets richly decorated with 
triumphal arches and gay with colors, the historical proces- 
sion of the Spanish students wended its way, amid the en- 
thusiasm of crowds gathered from near and far. Palos had 
already had its day of jubilee on the 3d of August. Now 
Huelva, too, showed how she glories in the association of 
her name with the greatest event of post-Christian times. 
Most justly, too, Queen Christina recognized the services of 
Fray Antonio de Marchena, who so nobly befriended Co- 
lumbus, by restoring to his brethren the Convent of Sta. 
Maria de la Rabida. In London, Americans, Spaniards, Ger- 
mans and Frenchmen assembled at the same board with the 
most distinguished Englishmen to sing the praises of Co- 
lumbus and his deeds. Similar celebrations, too numerous to 
refer to, were the order of the day on the Continent of 
Europe. 

But all the splendors of the European pageant pale into 
insignificance alongside of the brilliant celebration the great 
Republic of the Nev/ World organized to commemorate the 
achievement of Columbus. While Congress had decided that 
the national festival in honor of the event should take the 
form of an International Columbian Fair, many of the great 



cities of the land resolved to pay their tribute to the Gen- 
oese mariner by local celebrations. Chicago, Boston, Balti- 
more, and many other places did themselves honor in hon- 
oring Columbus. But, as often on such occasions, the 
Metropolis carried off the palm. For three days New York 
ceased to be the great commercial bee-hive of the Western 
Continent, and invited her children and her neighbors to a 
universal merrymaking. Hearty was the response to this in- 
vitation. The main thoroughfares of the city were gay with 
flags and draperies. Everywhere was seen the portrait of 
Columbus, festooned with the colors of Spain, Genoa and 
the United States. Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Gen- 
tile vied with one another to do homage to this son of the 
undivided Catholic Church. The transcendent importance 
of the man's service to mankind, and generous recog- 
nition of his great qualities, overshadowed the national and 
religious prejudice that so often blind men to the merits of 
their fellows. Saturday, Oct. gth, and Sunday, the loth, 
formed, so to say, the prelude of the fete, in the synagogues 
and the churches. Rabbi and preacher found an inspiring 
theme in the man and his deed. On Monday, Oct. nth, 
began the celebration proper. As seems right, the first day 
was allotted to the yotith of the city. With banners and 
decorations, the children of the schools, the college youth, as 
well as the students of the universities, marched in thousands, 
the hope and pride of the Metropolis. Among these none 
were more justly and warmly applauded than the children 
of the Catholic schools. Before the school parade had come 
to a close, the majestic Hudson became the scene of a great 
naval display. A formidable fleet of men-of-war, including 
besides the American squadron visitors from France, Spain 
and Italy, escorted by hundreds of merchant vessels of 
varying size and character, all bedecked with a bewildering 
mass of colors, filled the stream. While salvo followed salvo 
from the war vessels, the merchant fleet sent forth a wild 
chorus upon their steam whistles. Nor did the splendors of 
the celebration cease at nightfall. Fireworks whose brilliancy 
turned the night into day drew hundreds of thousands to 
the waterside. Meanwhile other legions filled the great 



thoroughfares, eager to see the torchlight parade of the 
Catholic societies, one of the most notable features of the 
celebration. Eloquence, too, and poetry and music wove new 
wreaths for the great Admiral. At Carnegie Hall some of 
the foremost Catholic orators spoke his praise, while odes 
set to music by a distinguished composer voiced the 
warm admiration of the sons of the Catholic Parnas- 
sus. In two other halls monster choruses and world-famed 
artists rendered cantatas composed especially to honor the 
anniversary of Columbus. Tuesday (the 12th) saw the cul- 
mination of New York's jubilee. Hundreds of thousands 
poured into the Metropolis from abroad. Up and down the 
streets surged ever increasing throngs, and the avenue that 
was to behold the great military parade appeared a sea of 
humanity. So great was the inpouring of visitors that thou- 
sands of citizens were unable to see the pageant. The 
parade was a truly American spectacle. Thousands of citizen 
soldiers, marching alongside of the small but well-drilled 
band of regulars, proclaimed that in the land of Columbus 
and Washington neither internal nor external enemies have 
enslaved the nation. In the procession were seen not only 
the militia of the Empire State, but many regiments from 
Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, commanded by 
the Governors of those states. These were followed by the 
veterans of the civil war; at their head rode nearly two 
score Generals, famed for their skill and valor on many a 
well-fought field. The New York Fire Department and 
numerous civil societies, representing not only America, but 
many a European nation, closed the procession. For hours 
they marched past the Vice-President of the Republic and 
the Governor of the State, who reviewed the parade. A 
grand banquet and a night pageant of tableaux representing 
on huge triumphal cars, brilliant with electric lights, historical 
scenes connected with the history of this New World, closed 
the celebration. 

If the celebration of Columbus' discovery enlisted so strongly 
the sympathies of all Americans, it appealed with special 
force to the Catholics of the United States. Columbus, as 
we have seen, was the true offspring of the ages of faith, 



of the undivided Church Catholic. Accordingly it was but 
fit that the children of the Church should honor him as 
their own representative. Throughout the country, therefore, 
churchmen and laymen vied with one another to do homage 
not only to Columbus the discoverer, but to Columbus the 
Catholic discoverer. To the United States Catholic Histori- 
cal Society belongs the credit of starting this movement. 
On December 15th, at a meeting of its council, the first 
step was taken. On motion of Mr. P. Farrelly, the eloquent 
Daniel Dougherty was invited to deliver a eulogy of the 
great Admiral in New York. But soon the plan of the 
celebration was enlarged. A committee was appointed to 
wait upon His Grace, Archbishop Corrigan, for the purpose 
of expressing to him the desire of the Historical Society to 
forward by every means in its power the Columbian Cele- 
bration of 1892. The Archbishop not only received the com- 
mittee most graciously, but forthwith translated his en- 
couraging words into vigorous action. He communicated 
with several prelates and distinguished laymen, and espe- 
cially with His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, appealing to them 
in behalf of a grand Catholic celebration of the fourth cen- 
tenary of the discovery of the New World. Cardinal Gibbons 
took up the sviggestion with ardor. He addressed to the 
bishops of the country a circular letter, which, on account 
of its importance, is given in full : 

Right Reverend Dear Sir : 

My attention has been called to the suggestion that it 
would be eminently fitting to celebrate with solemn religious 
observances the twelfth of October next, commemorative of 
the discovery of America. 

The Most Reverend Archbishop of New York, and other 
prelates with distinguished laymen, have made the request 
that the Archbishops and Bishops be addressed with a view 
to the taking of some concerted action in the matter, so 
that on the day mentioned in all the dioceses especial re- 
ligious services be held. It has also been thought, that 
these might be supplemented, wherever practicable, by some 
civil celebration in the evening. 



With all deference, I take the liberty of submitting the 
subject to Your Grace's consideration. A united action on the 
part of the hierarchy would enhance the glory of the cele- 
bration and invest the day with especial solemnity. I need 
not say that I myself am in favor of the proposed cele- 
bration. 

With profound respect, I remain, 

Your humble servant in Christ, 

James Cardinal Gibbons, 
Archbishop of Baltimore. 

The result of this appeal to the prelates of the United 
States was the universal and enthusiastic celebration of the 
Columbus anniversary throughout the length and breadth of 
the land. From Boston to New Orleans, from Baltimore to 
San Francisco, the cathedrals and churches of the great 
cities shone in their brightest adornments, and all the re- 
sources of the grand Catholic ritual were exhausted to lend 
splendor to the memorable jubilee. In almost every 
cathedral and in many churches was celebrated solemn 
High Mass, rendered more solemn by choice music and the 
glowing words of the most eloquent preachers. Nor was the 
suggested civil celebration forgotten ; processions and ora- 
tions were the order of the day. To describe in detail these 
festivities would exceed the scope of this paper. Suffice it 
to say, that the voice of the Cardinal and the hierarchy 
met with a warm and general response. 

Meanwhile stimulated by the vigorous action of His Grace, 
Archbishop Corrigan, and with his advice and co-operation, 
preparations went on apace in New York. The Catholic 
Club and the Catholic Historical Society combined their 
forces to make the celebration worthy of the event com- 
memorated, of the hero, and of the Metropolis. A joint 
committee was organized and a progframme mapped out. 
To others was committed the charge of the outdoor celebra- 
tion, and how well they acquitted themselves all bear wit- 
ness who beheld the parade of the parochial school chil- 
dren and of the Catholic societies. The Catholic Club and 
the Historical Society took in hand the literary and artistic 
celebration of the great anniversary. With zeal and energy 

xi 



the joint committee devoted themselves to their task, and 
though the difficulties to be surmounted were far from 
slight, success crowned their efforts. To the regret of all, 
Mr. Daniel Dougherty, who had been so ardent an advocate 
of the celebration from the beginning, and from whose elo- 
quent lips all expected a thrilling eulogy of Columbus, did 
not live to see the splendors of the festival. But the com- 
mittee's labors were lightened by the sympathy they met 
with on all sides. In Mr. Dougherty's place Mr. Frederic 
R. Coudert and ex-Governor Carroll of Maryland eloquently 
set forth the achievements . of the Genoese mariner and its 
world-embracing significance. Mr. George Parsons Lathrop 
and Miss Eliza Allen Starr sang his praise in melodious 
verse, while Prof. Bruno Oscar Klein composed a cantata, 
the merits of which were recognized on all hands. Nor 
must the singers be forgotten that made the occasion so 
great a success. To crown all, the Archbishop himself con- 
sented to preside on the occasion, and delivered a graceful 
and scholarly address, the beauties of which speak for them- 
selves. He was introduced to the assembled hearers in 
well-chosen words by Judge Daly, the chairman of the Fes- 
tival Committee. But words, however eloquent, are fleet- 
ing, and the committee determined that the occasion and the 
hero deserved a memorial that would go down to the men who 
will celebrate the fifth centenary, and beyond them to their 
successors in centuries to come. Accordingly the present vol- 
ume was planned. It will tell to future generations how 
the Catholic men of New York, and especially their orators 
and poets, did homage and honor to the great man who 
discovered America. As the United States Catholic Histor- 
ical Society had taken so important a part in starting and 
furthering the Catholic Columbian celebration, the field of 
their chosen labor, it was thought, should likewise be repre- 
sented in this memorial volume. Hence the three important 
historical papers, which will add to its interest and value. To 
the Dominican Father Mandonnet, professor at the University 
of Freiburg, in Switzerland, we owe a most interesting and 
learned paper on Diego de Deza, the friend and patron of 
Columbus. He discusses learnedly and at length the part 

xii 



this distinguished Dominican scholar, who subsequently be- 
came Archbishop of Seville, took in furthering the Genoese 
mariner's projects at the court of the Spanish sovereigns. 
Father J. F. X. O'Conor contributes an important paper giv- 
ing a vivid sketch of the labors of the old Jesuit mission- 
aries in the State of New York, and a condensed record of 
the missions of the Society of Jesus in the United States 
to the present day. As Catholic and Protestant writers have 
alike recognized in glowing terms the importance of their 
work from a historical and scientific point of view, and the de- 
votion and heroism of the Fathers, our readers will surely ap- 
preciate Father O' Conor's contribution. To a learned member 
of the Order of St. Francis we owe thanks for his com- 
prehensive picture of the labors of his brethren in the New 
World ; we cordially thank the Provincial of the Order of 
St. Francis, the Very Rev. Father Anacletus, for this valuable 
paper, which he transmitted to us. The Franciscans were 
the companions of the discoverer and the first messengers 
of the Church who brought to the Western Continent the 
glad tidings of Christ's Gospel. Their activity extended over 
both divisions of the New World from Canada to Patagonia, 
and the Araucanians in the South revered the heroic sons 
of St. Francis no less than the Hurons in the North. 

To give additional interest and value to this memorial 
volume, the Publication Committee has inserted a series of 
artistic and interesting full-page illustrations. The reader 
will find among them not only reproductions of all the im- 
portant portraits of Columbus himself, but also the best 
authenticated pictures of Isabella and her husband. 

This introduction would be incomplete without a hearty 
recognition of the zeal and energy displayed and the hard 
work done by the Joint Committee of the Catholic Club and 
the Catholic Historical Society who had in charge the cele- 
bration of the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery 
of America. To them and to their vigorous chairman, the 
Hon. Joseph F. Daly, is due the success of the festival; to 
them also belongs the credit of having compiled this tasteful 
memorial of an interesting event. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Introduction, i 

Prof. Charles G. Herbermann. 

Programme of Celebration, xix 

Music Hall, October ii, 1892. 
Joint Committee, ........ xxi 

Address, introducing Chairman, 3 

Chief Judge Joseph F. Daly. 

Address of the Chairman, 7 

Most Rev. Archbishop Corrigan. 

Oration, 11 

Hon. John Lee Carroll. 

Ode, "Christopher Columbus," 19 

Miss Eliza Allen Starr. 

Poem, "Columbus the Christ-Bearer Speaks," . . 21 

George Parsons Lathrop. 

Oration, 25 

Frederic R. Coudert, Esq. 
The Dominican Paper, 55 

The Jesuit Paper 99 

The Franciscan Paper, 127 

Addenda to Franciscan Paper, 169 

Columbus Centennial Literature, 181 

Portraits of Columbus 185 



LIST OF PLATES. 



^The Versailles or DeBry Portrait, 

The Giovio Portrait, 
'The Capriolo Portrait, . 
^ The Thevet Portrait, 
^ The MuNoz Portrait, 
"^The Parmigiano Portrait, 

Isabella, Royal Palace at Madrid, 
' Isabella, from the Tomb in Granada, 

Ferdinand, from the same, 

Ferdinand, "Ritratti" Portrait, 
/Ferdinand and Isabella, from Mariana' 
/joHN II. of Castille, 



s history. 



frontispiece 
129 
21 
II 
3 

19 

7 

57 

lOI 

25 
181 
169 



P ROGRAMME 

OF THE Celebration, by the Catholic Club 
OF the City of New York and the United 
States Catholic Historical Society, of the 
Quadri-Centennial Anniversary of the 
Discovery of America, at Music Hall, 
57"^" Street and y''^" Avenue, New York, 
October ii, 1892. 



J 



PINT COMMITTEE 

ON THE Celebration of the Four-Hundredth 
Anniversary of the Discovery of America. 

JOSEPH F. DALY, Chairman. 
THOMAS ADDIS EMMET. 
JOHN NEWTON. 

morgan J. o'brien. 

JOSEPH THORON. 
ROBERT J. HOGUET. 
WILLIAM R. GRACE. 
CHARLES V. FORNES. 
LOUIS BENZIGER. 
HENRY AMY. 
JOSEPH o'brien. 
CONRAD BACHEM. 
JEREMIAH FITZPATRICK. 
HENRY HEIDE. 
AUGUSTIN WALSH. 
PETER DOELGER. 
RICHARD H. CLARKE. 
JOSEPH J. o'dONOHUE. 
FRANK A. OTIS. 
JAMES H. MCGEAN. 
PATRICK FARRELLY. 
CHARLES W. SLOANE. 
JOHN D. KEILEY, JR. 
FRANCIS D. HOYT, Secretary. 



PROGRAMME. 



PART I. 

OVERTURE, "Euryatithe," . . . .CM. Weber 
By Cappa's Orchestra. 

INTRODUCTION Hon. Joseph F. Daly 

Chairman of the Joint Committee of the Catholic Club of the 
City of New York and the U. S. Catholic Historical Society. 

ADDRESS, .... Most Rev. M. A. Corrigan 

Archbishop of New York, Chairman of the meeting. 

W\5^\Q., ''Fest-Klaenge" {Festal Strains), . B.O.Klein 
Conducted by the Composer. 

ORATION Hon. John Lee Carroll 

Ex-Governor of Maryland. 

ODE, " Christopher Columbus,'' 

Miss Eliza Allen Starr, of Chicago 
Music by Mr. Bruno Oscar Klein, of New York. 

Baritone Solo, Chorus and Orchestra. Soloist, Sig. Giorgio Narbcrti, 
of St. Francis Xavier's Church Choir. Chorus, the Choirs of St. Francis 
Xavier's and St. Lawrence's Church, New York, St. Peter's Church, 
Jersey City, and gentlemen of the Palestrina Society, of New York. 

Conducted by the Composer. 



part II, 



POEM, ''Columbus, the Christ-Bearer, Speaks," 

George Parsons Lathrop, of Connecticut 

NoiE. — In this poem Columbus is represented as speaking 
to us of the present time from a point beyond this life. 

MUSIC, a. Dance of the Gypsy ; b. Finale, . Saint Saens 
ORATION, . Frederic R. Coudert, Esq., of New York 
MUSIC, National Airs 



" PORtRA'IT OF COLllMfifUS. 

in j-ri;,i Painted by Mariano Maella probably a century after the 
ink,- r>dcath of Columbus, and en^t^raved for the work of Senor 
citi- Munoz ■ on 'Columbus, published in Madrid in 1793. The 
T' -.original is in the possession of the- present Duke of Veragua, 
ing iLthe descendant of Columbus, and Hangs in the Archives of 
citi-'jithe Indies at Seville. \. A copy was presented to the Phila- 
ica delphia Academy of Arts by R. W. Meade in 1818. This 
not portrait was used by Delaplaine f(>r the frontispiece to his 
ex:- Gallery of Distinguished Americans, and the plate is a repro- 
that cdiueition.of his engraving. 
collected n ^- . 
tinent ■ 
all who 

Catholic writinvfs, b\ 
sides of the question. .1.. 
History. Both are there t 
and the works against il 
its shelves. When we ti- 
the Jcfl]' 

^-bc^e I-- 
i kzicrw <. 



INTRODUCTION 

BY 

CHIEF JUDGE JOSEPH F. DALY 




lADIES AND Gentlemen : A word of welcome is 
fitting to this notable assemblage, gathered at 
the invitation of two Catholic Societies, to cele- 
brate this memorable anniversary. The Catholic 
Club and the Catholic Historical Society felt that 
there was a sentiment which desired expression on such 
an occasion, and they therefore ventured to take the lead 
in proposing to invite Catholic orators and poets, represent- 
ing each section of our country, to address their fellow- 
citizens in New York. 

There was a special propriety in these two societies tak- 
ing such action. They aim to represent, the one Catholic 
citizenship, and the other Catholic study; and both Amer- 
ican citizenship and American culture. The Catholic Club is 
not a mere social organization. It has a higher reason for 
existence than the providing for our young men more of 
that co-operative luxury which we call "club life." It has 
collected a library which is perhaps the richest on this con- 
tinent in books relating to the Faith. This library is open to 
all who wish to use it, and is not only complete as regards 
Catholic writings, but gives the views of writers on both 
sides of the question. Lingard's History stands beside Hume's 
History. Both are there to study. The works of the Jesuits 
and the works against the Jesuits stand side by side on 
its shelves. When we recall that this club was originally 
founded by the Jesuits — that this library was commenced 
by them on those lines of free inquiry and investigation — 
I but state what all Catholics know of the broad and fair 
system of Jesuit education. 



The Catholic Historical Society is designed to collect and 
perpetuate the records and testimony of all that the Catholic 
Church has done on this continent, and to trace the history 
of those of its children who peopled it from the time of its 
discovery. And the history of the Catholic Church in Amer- 
ica begins with the history of America. The schoolboy who 
pictures to himself the ship of Columbus cleaving the seas, 
sees the cross upon its sail. The discovery of Columbus, 
which we commemorate to-day, is the greatest incident in 
the history of human endeavor. The share which the Cath- 
olic Church had in it was to foster it, to bless it, to make 
it possible. 

The propriety of the celebration of that event by the 
Catholics of America is conceded by those who are not of 
our ancient faith. A journal of high character and of na- 
tional reputation has suggested the loftiest reason for our 
commemorating this anniversary. I quote from its editorial 
utterance last Sunday : 

"There is a peculiar fitness in the participation by the 
Catholic societies in the Columbian celebration, for the one 
fact that is most clearly established with reference to the 
remarkable career of Columbus is that his most cherished 
hope was to carry the blessings of the Church to the 
dwellers in darkness on the further side of the globe. To 
him the fate of human beings who perished before the 
means of salvation could be offered them, though not so 
gloomy as more ' enlightened ' theologfians of later years 
have pictured it, was at once sad and sure, and the 
prospect that he might bring them succor from their fate 
was a real and living force in his mind. And in these days 
of materialism, when the vast population of the continent 
he brought to the knowledge of Europe is largely absorbed 
in quite other preoccupations than those of the self-ap- 
pointed evangelist, it is well to remember what infinite and 
unforeseen blessings may flow from the high and resolute 
pursuit of an unselfish aim." 

This is unprejudiced testimony, not only to the high 
motives of Columbus as a Catholic, but to the lofty mo- 
tives of every sincere Catholic, and is a recognition of the 



infinite blessings which must result to his fellow-citizens by 
the practical Catholic's devotion to his faith. As Catholics, 
therefore, the members of the ever-living Church celebrate 
this anniversary, and what more appropriate, upon such an 
occasion, than to call the highest ecclesiastical dignitary in 
the State to preside over their proceedings? Conventional 
usage requires that I should formally introduce him to you — 
our Archbishop — whom we all know so well, and who, if a 
thought of self ever intruded into his mind, would esteem 
above all dignities and titles that he was first in the affec- 
tions of his people. I have the honor to introduce the 
Most Reverend Archbishop Corrigan. 



M( 



^5- rSACft>BliUiA' ThJiH ^iATHuLIC 

.f,.- .);■.;.! P.". 1 ■-""'<(: for a moui.r, : 

From an.. ..engraving ol'i|th^,^^)iqtii^-e MV^thc Royal Palace of 
MadriQ. ,.,,;, ji;,., t icspondi.'d l" '<'('■• 

Isabella \ir^,s,,borp, ^jAprilj 2a(4,.,,i<4;5^^^. t^' daughter of John 
At tlA"^-:.:-^!. ^'^^Ml^ And (jf Ifia^eila,, gj?andd.aughte!r of John I. of 
that jV:ftftijg-a(l. ,,J;^eJ■ 5^-anc^()tli^r was. Catherine of Lancast,e-r, and 
excustt>yrcfe«*thi Pai-en^!»,..^e,.wfi^(_, descended from John;. ofw-Gaunt, 
to vcf^9SiMv^4war,d. IIlsfc,ojE, ^^ngland. . Anwmg the suitors for her 
J^^,1,_,^.han)d, wert^-,,-^%1 l^X)^l^er , of , the . English King Etlward IV. 
e-/, -<pr<>bably,;,(^louGest^f, afjervy',ard Richard HI.), the. brother of 
a,, Louis XI., King ; of 1, France, and her own kinsman, Ferdi- 
),. nand of Aragon. , IJ,er naarriage with the -latter took place 
..,. October 19. 1469.,, Her, youth aftp^i- her father's death was 
the IR^.'>^'^'^1 in Sjeclusion with her mother, by whom she was " care- 
y^.\,,, ^viUy inii^fucteql ,i,iv thpse ,, lessons of practical piety 'and in 
1^, ■ the deep ifevere^pe. for religion, which distinguished her 
J,, maturer :y,e£|.rs.i',. ."She was exceedingly beautiful : 'the hand- 
^y. somest . ladyj;., rsarys .one , of her household, 'whom 1 ever 
an aJPP'^^W and . the most gracixjus in her manners.' The por- 
to be^r^it. stiU .existing t of .her in the Royal Palace is conspicuous 
cor n '''oJV ^» -9pen symiwetry. of features, indicative of the natural 
thi;. ;iiei:enity of temper and that beautiful harmony of intellectual 
1 a¥#'lv^Pyi"i;kq"aMtie>'?.vvtiich m,ost distinguished her."—Pre'sccj//. 



ADDRESS 

OF 

MOST REVEREND M. A. CORRIGAN, D.D. 




IJEMBERS OF THE Catholic Historical Society 
AND THE Catholic Club, and Ladies and 
Gentlemen : I rise for a moment only, to return 
thanks to you all for the hearty manner in 
which you have responded to the kind words 
just uttered by Judge Daly. I appreciate it very highly. 
At the same time I take advantage of your goodness, now 
that you call upon me to say a few words, to offer an 
excuse for the shortness of the time that I am permitted 
to remain with you. As has been so well explained by 
Judge Daly, another event of importance also occurs this 
evening. All the Catholic Societies of the city are to parade, 
and a representative of the Chief Magistrate of our country 
has done them the great honor to signify that he will be 
present to review them. I allude to the Vice-President of 
the United States. With him, also, will be associated one 
who has already enjoyed the confidence of the people of this 
land in filling its highest office, and who is again a candi- 
date for the same honor — Mr. Cleveland. The Governor of 
our State, Mr. Flower, will also be present. Therefore, as 
an act of courtesy, it is required that I should endeavor 
to be there, to greet them, and thank them for this public 
compliment which they pay to all the Catholic Societies of 
this city. 

I am very glad to be able to say to you to-night that 
there are certain little coincidences which make this cele- 
bration in New York very appropriate. I need not allude 
to the fact that at this time, through the dispensation of 
the Holy See, the Diocese of New York comprises the very 



spot of gjound on which Columbus set his foot four hun- 
dred years ago. The islands of San Salvador, and the 
other islands of that group, are all at present under the 
jurisdiction of New York. After making four voyages to this 
country, Columbus died in Spain, but desired that his mor- 
tal remains should be carried to the land that he himself 
had discovered. There they remained for a number of 
years, and at the close of the last century they were sup- 
posed to have been brought to the city of Havana, when 
the Island of Hayti was ceded by Spain to France. How- 
ever, a few years ago, a most important discovery was an- 
nounced. It was related by the Delegate Apostolic at that 
time at San Domingo, that he had found the time remains 
of the great discoverer. This is a question that historical 
societies will have to settle : it is still controverted on both 
sides. There are certainly most powerful arguments adduced 
to prove that the remains were really those of the immortal 
Columbus. Be that as it may, I merely mention it so as 
to say that you are honored to-night by the presence of the 
Delegate Apostolic who goes in a few days to San Domingo. 
So that New York happens in a double sense to come near 
Columbus, both in the place that he landed on this 
continent and the place where his remains so long rested. 
In this connection, may I not also urge upon you all 
devotion and interest in this Historical Society ? You know 
how many controversies have been waged for years and 
years over the history of the discovery of this country — how 
many points in the life of Columbus are still disputed. It 
is certainly to the great glory of this State of New York 
that the first impartial history of Columbus that the world 
has seen was written by one of its sons, the distinguished 
Washington Irving. But there were not so many historical 
societies in his time as there are to-day. Had the true 
facts of Columbus' voyage been committed to writing then, 
and the other events of his life been cared for in like man- 
ner, how many controversies and disputes would have been 
saved to the students of later ages ! In many ways, his- 
torical societies are a very great advantage to the Church 
and to the State — an advantage to students at large ; and 

8 



I trust that this Historical Society, which has to do with 
the history of our own country, with interesting facts par- 
ticularly connected with the establishment and progress of re- 
ligion therein, may be fostered and developed. 

I have to congratulate the members of the Historical So- 
ciety and the Catholic Club on their happy choice of the 
speakers of to-night. They deserve great credit. They 
first originated here in our midst, as far as we know, the 
idea of celebrating this anniversary with anything like the 
pomp which has been given to it. To the Historical Soci- 
ety of New York — in this diocese at least — is due the credit 
for taking the first steps towards securing the success of 
the present celebration. You must remember that the first 
impulse toward it was given by one whose lips, so full of 
eloquence, have since been sealed in death — the Hon. Dan- 
iel Dougherty. He is well represented this evening, and 
the representation brings in the entire country — North, South, 
East, and West. From the sunny South comes the honored 
ex-Governor of Maryland, who will so soon address you ; 
from the North, the last speaker of this evening, Mr. Cou- 
dert ; from the East, Mr. Lathrop ; and from the West, the 
voice of Miss Starr, which will be rendered to you in sweet 
strains of music. So that North, South, East, and West, all 
combine to-night to give to Columbus that merit which so 
rightly belongs to him. I congratulate you in advance on 
the treat that is in store for you. 



evening 



posed to embody lof'i-'KjtM^IJi WJt-\,-.|:t) I- U M B U S. 

cee.:tiv.rsp^„^tbi^^j^r^|b^^.^^^.^ "Portraits et Vies des Hommes 

Illustt-es,^' Paris,' 1584. According to N. D. Clerck, in his 

-"Toheel der ' Beroemder Hertogen, Delft, 1617, the original 

l?^^, P^^"ti"S fro"i which it was engraved wks ' obtained by 
Thevet from Lisbon, ha\4ng been painted there from life by 
a Dutch artist. It was engraved for North's 'edition of 
Plutarch's Li\^es. Cambridge, 1676, and Bullart's Academic des 

^' Sciences et des Arts, Brussels, 1682. 



en looked 

The inl a and the 

■■: li liie ' ■ 

est or 
; or for oiu 
rr^al value ' 
rest o: 

Jing as 

:. the portion of this vast continent knovm as the 



ORATION 

OF 

JOHN LEE CARROLL. 




DO not propose in the few remarks I shall make 
to you this evening to enter upon any historical 
narrative of the virtues, the courage, the trials 
and disappointments, nor even of the final triumph 
of the great Catholic discoverer of the continent 
of North America. 

This will doubtless be laid before you in all its details by 
the able papers written upon this subject, and which it is pro- 
posed to embody in a memorial volume containing the pro- 
ceedings of this celebration. 

It will be my purpose simply to draw your attention for 
a few moments to some of the reasons why civilized Eu- 
rope to-day is so deeply interested in the approaching cel- 
ebration of this great historic event ; why the event itself 
appeals so strongly to the patriotic feelings of every Ameri- 
can who loves his country and appreciates her enormous 
progress and advantages ; and secondly, what part the Cath- 
olic Church has taken, not only in the discovery of the con- 
tinent, but also in maintaining the Christian character of the 
millions who have sprung from what has aptly been looked 
upon as almost a second creation. 

The interest which to-day is centred in America and the 
prospects of the Columbian Exposition is not entirely an un- 
selfish interest or one which is based upon any sentimental 
love for us or for our institutions. It springs mainly from 
the commercial value of these United States in their rela- 
tions with the rest of the world. To state it in figures, 
which, astounding as they may appear, are none the less 
correct, the portion of this vast continent known as the 



United States imports and consumes more than eight hun- 
dred millions of dollars of the products of the European 
manufacturers and of the tillers of their fertile soil. 

The human imagination can scarcely realize the vast im- 
portance of that single statement. Who can estimate the 
arteries of life through which this stream of profit flows, or 
figure up the comfort and consolation to a people for whom 
a single market opens such a world of wealth and pros- 
perity ? And yet this is only one of the many advantages 
they enjoy. Only last year, when famine stalked abroad 
and almost decimated the people of all the Russias, when 
Germany and France and the whole of Central Europe 
were startled by the fact that the products of their soil 
could not maintain one-third of their population, and that 
the usual source of supply from Southern Russia was cut 
oflE to relieve the home demand, the cable flashed the wel- 
come news that the Providence of God had highly favored 
this Western world, and that the plains of America could 
furnish to their millions of people the necessaries for their 
daily life. And in fact this is what we did accomplish. 

The exports to Europe last year from our shores, ninety 
per cent, of which came from the products of the soil, 
amounted in value to over a thousand millions of dollars 
poured into the lap of a destitute and suffering people. 
But even this is only a portion of our pecuniary value to 
our foreign friends. The tourists from this country spend 
two hundred millions in their wanderings and their pur- 
chases in the mighty field of European art, and as the 
whole of the carrying trade of this gigantic commerce is in 
their hands, it has been estimated that one hundred mil- 
lions annually would scarcely pay the benefits which flow 
from this single source. 

When, therefore, we contemplate these enormous figures, 
we can readily understand why a practical people should be 
anxious to retain the most confidential relations with us. 

But let us lay aside for a moment this sordid view, which 
tells perhaps too strongly of the shop, and see what else we 
offer to the foreigner which touches the strings of his heart and 
moves the impulses of his nature. He sees beyond the bil- 



lows of the g^eat Atlantic a nation grown to manhood in 
a hundred years, blessed with a government of freedom 
without license, of strength without tyranny, of law and 
order without military despotism, of religious toleration 
guaranteed by the Constitution, and of absolute equality of 
political rights for the rich and the poor, the high and the 
low. 

Who can wonder, then, that he weighs the anchors which 
have bound him and his people for a thousand years, and 
sails forth upon that broad ocean which, thanks to the great 
Columbus, is no longer an unknown sea ? 

Who can wonder that he comes to us at the rate of a mil- 
lion a year to swell the vast tide of our population, to 
build our railroads, to cultivate our soil, and to link his 
destinies forever with those of the great Republic ? It mat- 
ters little to us what may be his political sentiments when he 
lands upon this shore — they may even be those of the for- 
eign anarchist — for he very soon will learn that this is a 
country of education and of order, in which no man will 
seek to oppress him; but if he plants himself in opposition 
to the written law, he will be overwhelmed by its justice 
and its strength. 

Therefore, I hold that since the finger of Almighty God 
pointed out to the people of Israel the glories and the 
profits of the promised land, never has there been opened 
to the human race so marvelous a prospect of freedom and 
of happiness as that which sprang from the discovery and 
founding of this Western world. Hence, as American citi- 
zens, we are proud of the prospects of our coming Expo- 
sition, proud of the sentiment which called it forth, and 
we fully realize that the world anticipates that in grandeur 
of conception and in beauty of execution it will not be 
surpassed by any monument which has marked the prog- 
ress and the civilization of modern times. We will be pre- 
pared to welcome our guests from every quarter of the 
globe in whatever numbers they may come, and while we 
receive them with a hospitality as boundless as the conti- 
nent itself, we will endeavor to show them, one and all, 
that four hundred years have not diminished the lustre of 



the great explorer nor effaced the gratitude of the mighty 
nation which has followed his courageous lead. 

And now let us briefly see what share the grand old 
Catholic Church has had in this overshadowing benefit be- 
stowed on man. This is, I take it, essentially a Catholic 
celebration, sanctified by the suggestions of the Holy Father 
himself, and confirmed by the mandates of his Eminence 
the Cardinal, and his Grace the Archbishop of New York. 

It is a Catholic celebration, because at the time of the 
great discovery, and for nearly a hundred years afterwards, 
the service of the Catholic Church was the only form of 
Christian worship known within the borders of the Western 
World. It is a Catholic celebration, because in landing on 
the Island of San Salvador the first act of Catholic Colum- 
bus was to unfurl the banner of the cross, and to offer 
up in thanksgiving the holy sacrifice of the Mass. It is a 
Catholic celebration, because every step which advanced the 
civilization of this continent, north or south, east or west, 
was preceded by the emblem of our religion, borne by will- 
ing hands and hearts who in many instances sealed with 
their blood the sincerity of their devotion. We all well know 
that when the great explorer turned his fleet towards the 
south he abandoned forever the northern portion of our conti- 
nent, and that the colonists who undertook the settlement 
of our own country were for the most part made up of the 
French, the Dutch, and the English races. But we also know 
that with them came the Jesuit missions, and that through all 
the long and dreary years, when every foot of the land we 
now inhabit was firmly held by roving tribes of savages, to 
whom Christianity was an unknown name and the white man 
an enemy to be destroyed on sight, the silent laborers of the 
Catholic Church were sowing the seed of that religion which 
now has taken root in the hearts of millions of our country- 
men. 

The history of the Jesuit missionaries of Canada and North 
America, filled with the record of their daring deeds and 
their heroic martyrdom, outstrips in romance the fabled won- 
ders of the old world, and stands in its truth as a beacon 
light for the admiration of all posterity. If we take the story 



of the Ark and the Dove, and follow the fortunes of the 
Jesuit Thomas Copley, himself of noble lineage and of rich in- 
heritance, we can trace him as he administers the sacraments 
to the dying colonists in the swamps of Maryland, until we 
find him at last in the assembly of St. Mary's urging by his 
voice and presence the adoption of that great act of religious 
toleration which has ever been the pride and glory of our 
State ; that act which declared that upon the soil of Mary- 
land, at least, religion should be forever free, and that loyalty 
to our country's government should be confined to no class or 
to no religious sect of our citizens. And this was one hun- 
dred and fifty years before the Constitution of the United 
States was made ! 

Let me say to you, there can be no more thrilling episode 
in history than that of the Jesuit Indian missionaries of Can- 
ada and the Northern States ; no such ferocity on record as 
that shown by the savage tribes of "Mohawks," " Algon- 
quins," and the " Hurons," and no martyrs at any stage of 
the Christian era ever underwent more tragic sufferings than 
the saintly names of Lallemant and Brebceuf. 

When we think of the trials of these men, far from the 
haunts of civilization, with no cause to urge them on but 
that of high morality and religion, with no hope of personal 
gain, but every promise of untold torture and of death, do 
we not stop in amazement to recognize the divinity of that 
religion which nerved their hearts and gave strength and 
power to their arms ? And so it is to-day. Amid all the 
corruption which at times has stained the management of 
our Indian frontier, it has been admitted by all, and openly 
proclaimed in the Senate of the United States, that the 
Catholic missionary priest, uncommissioned by the Govern- 
ment, with no arms but his rosary, with no companion but 
the sincerity of his faith, with no salary but the conscious- 
ness of duty well performed, is the only man whose influence 
over the savage mind gives the promise of peace and se- 
curity to the settlers of the distant West. 

I have thus briefly referred to the history of our early 
Catholic days for the purpose of showing you that there is 
no stain upon our record, that we can look with pride upon 



every page of that story and realize what those have done 
who have gone before us. And now the small seed which 
was planted in those early days, and nurtured by the mis- 
sionaries and martyrs of the Church, has grown into a mighty 
tree and has spread its branches over every portion of our 
favored land. 

Protected by the power of our free institutions, we have 
grown in numbers from forty thousand to nearly ten mil- 
lions of people, united to a man in the profession of our 
faith, standing firmly by our Church in the war she has 
always waged against socialists and communistic men, and 
yielding to none in our readiness to defend forever the im- 
mortal principles of the American Revolution. 

Who therefore can justly say that the influences which 
have brought about these great results are not equally nec- 
essary in the future to cheer us onward in the days of our 
prosperity, and to strengthen us in the hour of our trials ? For 
who can doubt we will have trials, ay, even greater, per- 
haps, than those through which we have already passed ? 
Do we not remember that in the very noon-day of our success 
we were suddenly stricken by the greatest calamity that can 
befall a people — that for four long years the land was rent 
from end to end with civil feud, and the wild element of war 
wasted our substance, desolated our homes, and hurried a 
million of our people to untimely graves ? 

Who then shall say what the future has in store for us of 
good or evil ? How are we to determine the many grave and 
serious controversies which must arise in the coming adminis- 
trations of the government ? 

Who will bring to a happy issue the varied questions of 
capital and labor, of poverty and wealth, of trade and finance, 
of crimes and punishments, of local jealousies and of sectional 
animosities ? Who will stem the great tide of political cor- 
niption, which is sure to follow in the wake of enormous ex- 
penditure and of mountains of taxation heaped upon the 
people ? Who will guide us through the various disputes, 
which even religious dissensions may bring upon us ? 

Is it too much for me to say that these may be the rocks, 
the hidden rocks, which lie deep beneath the surface of our 

i6 



prosperity ? And if ever the day should come, which God 
forbid, when men are goaded on to madness, and convulsion 
threatens to destroy the temple of government we have 
reared, it will be a dark hour for the future of this great 
land if we discard the counsels of the Catholic Church, and 
are not guided by her principles of charity and moderation. 



Pt)RTRAIT OF COLUMBUS. 

I'-rom the Ruyal Museo Borbonaico in Naples; said to have 
been painted by Francesco Mazzioli, who assumed the name 
Parmigiano, from his native city Parma. It was executed 
in 1527 by the order of Cardinal x'Mexander Farnese, twenty- 
one years after the death of Columbus, and mi:st be purely 
fanciful, notwithstanding that the English publishers of 
Prescott's works selected it to illustrate his Ferdinand and 
Isabella. A copy of it was presented to the Antiquarian 
Society of Worcester, Mass., in 1853, by Mr. Ira M. Burton. 
The original was removed from the Farnese estates to the 
Royal Mttseiim by the King of Naples. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 



ODE BY ELIZA ALLEN STARR, 



INVOCATION. 

O Thou whose way is on the sea, 

Make known to me 
The path Thy dread Archangels keep 

Across the awful deep ; 
Flash o'er the shadowy main 
Light from those stars that wane 
Beyond our welkin's space, 
That I, a man, may trace. 
Upon adoring knees, 
God's highway o'er mysterious seas. 



Christ, on these shoulders rest, 
While I the billows breast ; 

My only care, 
Christ and His truth to bear 
To shores unknown ; 
Where God is not ; 
In His own works forgot ! 
Queen, on thy starry throne. 
Cheer, with thine eyes benign, 
This lonely quest of mine ! 



Glory to God on high ! 
Thine be the praise 
Through length of days ! 
Fly, royal banner, fly ! 



Christ to His own is nigh, 
For on this flowery strand 
The cross doth now victorious stand ! 
Sovereigns of mighty Spain, 

Joy to your reign ! 
Castile's most gracious Queen, 
Await, serene, 
Thy futiu-e's double crown 
Of just renown ! 



Hush ! o'er that bed of death. 
Swayed by the failing breath, 

A clank of chains ! 
"Peace to the noble dead !" 
With tears, by men is said ; 
"While Angels sigh, " God reigns.' 

FOURTH CENTENARY. 

To-day, what paeans sound 
The glad earth round ! 
"Colombo!" chime the bells; 
Each breeze "Colombo" swells; 

O'er land, o'er sea, 
One burst of melody — 
"A New World found." 



™r»n[i[ i riii1|illlteJ 




CHRISTOPHORO COLOMBO 



tap lartnes! . . 
PC;R IRAl I' J^f COLUMBUS. 

Frum Alipraiicio";^kp^VA6"s '''^'RitratH'^de di Cento Capitani 

lUustri," Romeir '1591^,' and' the ■■'''' Ritratti di Capitani Illustri," 

• Rcrnie,^,, 16.3s- ,. Reproduced .by Carderera and Navarrete in 

l-tj^eli; worlds on Columbus. TlieTloyal Academy of Hist<M-y 

( oi. Madrid., ,to, which the city, of, Genoa applied in 1S62 for 

a model for a likeness of Columtus' ' for a public naonument, 

reported that this portrait was equally authentic with the 

vtiioiNiouporirait, find a, bettesr .pigcg of engraving. 



Ana 
And . 
And beaT 



the sp' 



iJut, over ail, trof' i^a me on. 



COLUMBUS THE CHRIST-BEARER SPEAKS. 

BY 

GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP. 



O clouds ! far clouds like languages that rise, 
Blown breath made visible from lips all-wise, 
Tracing dim characters of mystic form. 
And signs of wonder in the distant heaven; 
What speak ye to me ? Not of rolling storm. 
Unrest or tremulous calm, to this life given : 
Nay ! But a message from the farthest skies, 

God's living air. 
That strangely calls: "Arise, 

Go forth, and bear ! " 

So spoke the heaven. And I, Columbus, heard ; 

Columbus the gray Admiral, known to you. 

I, from the twilight hollows of the past 

That then were thrilled with dawn, the Word recall. 

Wind-buffeted and worn, and steeped in grief ; 

Salt spray and bitter tears upon my face ; 

So now you see me. But I, then, was young ; 

And there at Genoa on the quay I dreamed 

And saw the future. Yea: "Arise, go forth. 

And bear ! " By day the moving shapes of cloud. 

Solemn or bright, that message mutely spelled ; 

As though the speech of nations age-long dead 

Were writ in shadowy lines upon the sky. 

Bidding me do God's will ! At night, in fire 

That high command blazed out through all the stars. 

Whence gleamed the gaze of wise men in the past, 

But, over all, God's light that led me on. 



A boy ! Yet through the awful stress of years, 
Of storm and conflagration, wreck and war, 
Of men's wild strife and murder, I kept the faith, 
A child's faith, pure. 

Not mine the race to change, 
Or make new men who better should disclose 
God's likeness ; but to take the men I found, 
And mould them, rude, to servants of His word. 
I, rude myself, a sailor, full of faults, 
Yet bending still to Him my thoughts, my will, 
My learning and my act, — what could I hope 
More than to win them, that they, too, should bear 
The sacred burden, and help carry Christ 
Unto the far new land o'er seas unknown ? 

High was that mission, to me unworthy given. 

But hardship trained my hands. Firm hope made whole 

My weakness ; lending to my spirit wings 

Across the deep to fly. When hope grew frail, 

Sad poverty came, and with her slow calm smile 

Gave me the kiss of peace, and made me strong. 

So — dowered with patience, hope, faith, charity — 

A beggar at the gates of that New World 

I stood, whose key I held, and I alone. 

O key of gold, unlocking wealth of dreams ! 
/ dreamed of wealth ; yet chiefly to unlock 
The Holy Sepulchre from heathen hold. 
More have I suffered from the lies of men. 
Than all the gain to me my service brought; 
Save gain in heaven. Oh ! gladly I went forth. 
Toil-worn and tried, yet joyous even then 
To bear to realms unfound the name of Christ, 
And set His cross there, sign of life in death. 
So where the first mark of the New World shone, 
A twinkling light upon a shore unseen. 
We raised the cross — there on San Salvador. 



And all along Cipango and Cathay 

And fertile Ornofay we showed the cross ; 

Then later by that three-hilled isle that rose 

From out the waves, type of the Trinity ; 

And on Paria, called the coast of pearls, 

Where the sweet stream from Eden's Tree of Life 

Flowed down and mingled with the bitter gulf. 

"What matter if ye now by other names 
Have called these lands ; or if my name be swept 
Far from their verge, and drowned in rumor false ? 
The cross I planted there : the cross remains ! 

I, for my part, disdain at last received ; 
Sent home in chains, dishonored, outcast, poor. 
Sweet poverty then, who first to this great work 
Had consecrated me, gave me her crown 
Of lowly blessing at the hour of death. 
Yet, lost in grief, "O Heaven, pity me !" 
I cried. "I, who have wept for others long, — 
Weep, earth, for me ! All ye who justice love 
And truth — for me, Columbus, weep and pray !" 

But on my sorrow sudden radiance burst. 
The broken chain, hung on my death-room's wall, 
Was token of earth's bondman now set free. 
And lo ! I saw that I who bore the Christ 
Unto the New World's border — I, the same, — 
God in His mercy granted me to bear 
His Holy Cross of grief through all my life. 

Ye who inherit the New World I found, 
With riches yet untold to touch or sight. 
Beware lest poverty of soul should blast 
Your earthly splendor. This New World is yours ; 
Yet dream not it is all. Still speak the clouds. 
Though dumbly, of the future and the past. 
Still shine the stars, with unforgetting gleam ; 
And God remembers. Yours is this New World ; 



But the great world of faith all still must seek 

With trustful sail borne by a dauntless mast 

Like mine. Nor wreck nor shoal, nor hate nor fear, 

Nor foul ingratitude shall stay your course ; 

Nor chains unjust. Sail bravely forth, and find 

The New World here of Christ's truth realized ! 

So I, Columbus, the gray Admiral, speak 
From out the furrows of unmeasured seas 
That spread a seeming waste 'twixt you and God. 
For still I voyage on, with perfect hope. 
To that pure world of heaven, for ever new. 
Where Time reigns not, but God for ever reigns. 











nil ' 

{Ilk 



FERRANDORE CATHOLICO 



^ R E b K R I ' 



FliRDINAND THK C ATM (.) l.IC. 

Kroin the Ritratti et Elogii di Capitani lllustri, published at 
Rome, 1635. 

Ferdinand was born March' lO; 1452, at Sos, in Aragon, 

the son of John II. and his second wife Joan Henriquez, of 

has fh^'' blood' rbysl of Castile, daughter of Don Frederick 

'"'^ii^'Hienrvque^j' AdmiFal of that kingdom. He succeeded to the 

' tlifone'lii i479/'married Isabella^ <if' Castile in 1469, aJrid died 

Janxlary' 22, 1516.'" 

By the will of Isabella, his wife, whom he survived, he 
was made Regent of her Kingdom of Castile, as she writes, " on 
*' account of his magnanimity and illustrious qualities, as well as 
O' his large experience, and the great profit which will redound 
■"■' to the state from his wise and beneficent rule." The his- 
torian Prescott records his impartial justice ; his watchful 
solicitude to shield the weak from the strong; his wise 
'' economy, sobriety, and moderation ; his decorum and respect 
fol* religio'n'; thte industry promoted by his wise laws and 
his ' OT*'^! " example, a^id the consummate sagacity which 
ma^^ Hftil th'e- *oiracle 6f the princes of the age. 



ORATION 

OF 

FREDERIC R. COUDERT. 




|HE early life of Columbus offers a most alluring 
field to the historian of a speculative and imagi- 
native turn of mind. The story abounds in doubts 
and rests upon a nice calculation of probabilities. 
The writer must make a free use of the poten- 
tial mode, and may only indulge in positive statements 
with misgivings as to his own accuracy. While Homer 
has been claimed by seven different cities, all of them 
anxious to secure the fame of having given him birth, 
Columbus may boast even more. Genoa seems to be the 
first in the race ; to make her claims sure, a noble Mar- 
quis, a few years ago, pointed out a venerable structure in 
which he asserts that the great discoverer was born. As 
nothing can be plainer than the fact that the Marquis speaks 
only upon information and belief, no imputation upon his 
veracity is cast by those who name other claimants as en- 
titled to the much coveted honor. Unless the Genoese 
champion may emulate Pythagoras, who assured his hearers 
that he had been present, in the flesh, centuries before, at 
the siege of Troy, in the person of Euphorbus, and proved 
the assertion by pointing out the shield which he then wore, 
we require other evidence to sustain the Marquis's assertion. 
If, however, Columbus was not born in Genoa, who knows 
whether his eyes did not first open to the light in Corsica ? 
At least a learned Abbe so states, and the town of Calvi 
has given earnest of its convictions by erecting a monu- 
ment to assure posterity of the fact and to place it beyond 
the shadowy regions of historical controversy. 



If we may without discourtesy venture to dispute the 
Abb6 and the monument and turn our back on Corsica, we 
shall find Cucaro, Cugureo, Piacenza and other towns, rap- 
idly increasing in number as time rolls on, to vindicate 
their claims. It is not here necessary, fortunately for us, 
to settle the dispute. The part of wisdom is rather to fol- 
low the example of the Chicago Fair, and to photograph all 
the rival sites, with generous impartiality and unreserved 
confidence in the judgment of the citizen who shall under- 
take to decide the question for himself. It is enough to 
say here that Columbus, more fortunate than Homer, was 
certainly born and lived and died — so far as such men as 
Homer and Columbus ever die. 

So, too, it may be said by hasty and reckless writers 
that Columbus was of Italian descent, but even here doubt 
throttles assertion and bids it pause. Is it quite sure that 
Columbus did not owe part, at least, of his daring and cour- 
age and tenacity to the French blood which, it is stated by 
some authorities, flowed in his veins ? Not a mean and 
plebeian blood, but a bluish and gentle fluid, that had run 
in bright channels through the bodies of gallant men and 
fair women. An Admiral in the French navy would, ac- 
cording to some, be responsible in the far past for the pro- 
pensity, invincible and enduring in Columbus, to scour the 
seas. A clear case of atavism, even if the French ances- 
tor was a bold pirate as well as a noble Admiral. Again 
it is our good fortune to-night that we need not decide the 
question. But I deem it my duty to warn you that no 
inference unfavorable to this theory is to be drawn from 
the fact that French writers lay no stress upon the possible 
circumstance that Columbus may have been warmed and 
invigorated by the same blood as themselves. They exhibit 
a curious apathy and indifference in this respect. Do they 
not pass without notice and without a proper exhibition of 
exultation the well-ascertained truth that Washington him- 
self was one of their kinsmen? Is it not probable that 
his strong, cold nature was occasionally warmed up to its 
boiling point by an ebullition wholly French? If the great, 
strange oaths that he swore at Lee on the plains of Mon- 



mouth had been accurately preserved they might throw 
some light upon the subject. What shall we say of a 
nation that allows Scotland to capture St. Patrick and claim 
him as her own, without regard to the truth of history or 
the probable preferences of the good Saint himself ? It is 
idle to pursue this digression ; it was only intended to ex- 
plain why the possible right of Columbus to claim a 
French ancestry was not diminished by the negligence of 
French writers of history to uphold it. 

Wherever born and from whatever parent root he sprang, 
Columbus was, for the time, a well-educated man. I am 
tempted to say a well-educated gentleman, and upon the 
whole conclude that this term may be safely adopted, 
although it is a matter of doubt whether his parents were 
of noble rank or simply carders of wool. This subject is 
not one of great importance, however, if we adopt the sug- 
gestion made by an ingenious writer that wool-carding was 
a very reputable business, in which persons of birth and edu- 
cation not infrequently engaged, so that the two theories may 
be happily reconciled by the conclusion that neither excludes 
the truth of the other. 

To decide where Columbus received his early education is 
comparatively easy. There are but two cities seriously 
claiming the title of pedagogue to the future discoverer. 
These are Genoa and Padua. The strongest argument thus 
far advanced in favor of the latter is to the effect that 
Genoa, being imperfectly equipped with educational appli- 
ances, he must have imbibed his learning at Paduan foun- 
tains. This is very much as though one were to say, of 
any learned native of Brooklyn or Philadelphia whose Alma 
Mater was unknown, that he must have studied at Colum- 
bia College. 

Having thus settled that Columbus was born in Italy or 
Corsica, that he was a descendant of French or Italian an- 
cestors, that he was born of noble though wool-carding par- 
ents and educated at Genoa or Padua, and without 
attempting to fix the date of his birth as utterly beyond 
our ability to establish, the remaining work before the 
student of the great man's life is comparatively easy. The 



doubts and difficulties that beset us are no greater than 
those that arise when we deal with others of the world's 
great children. We may trace his struggles and trials, 
sympathize with him in the bitterness of his disappointments, 
marvel at the unflinching courage and tenacity of his pur- 
pose, and follow him, almost day by day, from the moment 
when he stepped on his puny caravel to the hour of his 
death. 

It has been the fashion of many admirers of Columbus 
to look for the elements of a special inspiration in his life, 
labors and successes. It has been assumed by them that 
his fame would be magnified, if he were shown to be the 
special object of a Divine selection for the accomplishment 
of great ends. That he was prompted, guided, directed and 
protected by Divine Providence, and that without this aid 
he would have failed in the accomplishment of his purpose, 
is merely to state a proposition in which all believers in the 
ever-present influence of a divine will may acquiesce. But 
there is nothing to justify the contention that Columbus, 
like Joan of Arc, was called by an irresistible command 
to perform a task which he was not in every way, by 
nature and education, fitted to perform. The little Maid 
of Orleans, who left her peaceful home to save her coun- 
try, with no knowledge of war, no skill in arms, no taste 
for shedding human blood, may well stand before posterity 
and challenge universal homage and tender admiration for 
deeds that exhibit the luminous traces of special inspiration. 
It is quite as easy to believe her own pathetic story as to 
account in any other way for the development of the plain, 
modest, pious, peasant girl into a skillful, brave and suc- 
cessful warrior. The two cases, of Joan and of Columbus, 
may serve as illustrations of the dividing line between that 
impetus which derives its sole force and origin from an un- 
seen and providential cause and the natural, logical and 
expected result of genius and courage, working under God's 
Providence to a definite and well-conceived end. Columbus 
had received the gift of genius, which is of itself a sort of 
inspiration, to accomplish great things. Genius is not the 
result nor creation of education, nor the fruit of toil, nor the 



gift of ancestry ; it is a spark that is blown into a flame, 
without the consciousness of its possessor, and which then 
lights up the world, for good or for evil. Alexander, Han- 
nibal, Caesar, Mahomet and Napoleon stand apart from the 
rest of the world as men thus gifted. Many would add 
Columbus to the list, although his title to be ranked m such 
company is not universally conceded. 

We are naturally disposed, after these 400 years, looking 
through the dim veil of commingled History and Romance, 
to treat the discovery of America by Columbus as a mar- 
velous and unequaled event, which only a rare combination 
of circumstances could produce. It is assumed that there 
was little in the past history of the world, or in the knowl- 
edge then held by learned men, to justify the belief that 
the extremities of the world had not been reached. But 
such delusions cannot withstand a moment's scrutiny. The 
marvel is, not that the discovery was made, but that it had 
not been made long before. It was as inevitable that it 
should be effected at an early date as the discovery of print- 
ing was sure to follow the invention of paper. To use a 
common but expressive form of speech — it was in the air. 
Proof abounded that there was an undiscovered land far to 
the West, and that a continent, supposed to be the conti- 
nent of Asia, might be directly reached by sailing in a west- 
erly direction from Europe over the Atlantic. Evidence 
sufficient to convict the strange land of being a reality had 
been repeatedly furnished, in almost conclusive form. Navi- 
gators driven by storm beyond the Azores had found curi- 
ously carved woods, manifestly of some other than European 
origin ; a large canoe, capacious enough to hold twenty rowers, 
had been picked up at sea, and also strange trees of a 
kind unknown to Europeans ; more striking than all, perhaps, 
the bodies of men, of a dark color, had been thrown up by 
the sea, and had shown that somewhere in the West a race 
of human beings would be found, differing in appearance 
from any then known, whether of European, Asiatic or 
African origin. Marco Polo, the great traveler, had returned 
from his explorations and told strange tales of the coun- 
tries that he had visited, Tartary, India, China ; these were 



supposed to extend as far as the continent now known as 
the continent of America. 

But neither the physical proofs thus furnished by flood 
and tide and storm nor the narratives of travelers could ex- 
tirpate the deeply-rooted prejudices of men and overcome the 
invincible ignorance of the great mass of mankind. 

Men had eyes to see, but the lessons taught by the bodies 
of dead men and strange plants and beasts they could not 
read. They had ears, but they would not listen to the 
tales of travelers, preferring, as sluggish indolence always does, 
to call them lies and thus end the debate. 

We must remember, however, that the world was not 
plunged in absolute ignorance as to the conformation of the 
earth. The idea that its form was spherical was old and 
accepted by learned men. Ptolemy and the geographers of 
Arabia had long taught that the earth was in the form of a 
globe and might be circumnavigated. The loadstone and as- 
trolabe had been invented and had made navigation compar- 
atively easy and safe. 

Nor was this all. The fact must have been known to 
many that there was a new land to the west of Greenland. 
The hardy Norsemen had put their foot upon it five hun- 
dred years before Columbus turned his back on Palos. They 
had made repeated voyages between Greenland and Iceland. 
Even were we not assured by positive proof that such was 
the fact, we must have drawn the conclusion from irresistible 
evidence. The dauntless sailors who left Norway to settle 
in Iceland, and from Iceland reached Greenland, were not 
the men to permit the narrow seas to separate them from 
the continent that was within easy reach. Even had they 
been willing to leave the neighboring ocean unexplored, some 
beneficent storm from the northeast must have forced them 
into a reluctant knowledge of their neighbors. The distance 
between Iceland and Greenland is 750 miles ; America is 
but 250 miles from Greenland. The old Vikings, who were 
never so thoroughly at home as when they trod the deck of 
a stout ship in a storm, are not open to the reproach of 
having feared to test the mysteries of these unknown waters. 
The record of northern voyages is too well known to leave 



a doubt as to their having been made and having resulted 
in the discovery of America. In the year 986, Bjorne Herj- 
wissen saw the land which we now call New England. It 
was originally called Vinland, on account of the grapes that 
were discovered there and said to produce good wine. So 
satisfactory and complete was the evidence of the existence 
of this remote land, that Pope Paschal II., as early as the 
year 11 12, appointed Eric Upsi Bishop of Iceland, Greenland 
and Vinland, and the Bishop, it is said, actually visited Vin- 
land in person during the year 1121. While we have no ac- 
curate data as to the spiritual condition of the new diocese, 
we know that it was extensive enough in point of area. It 
certainly is interesting to read that nearly four hundred 
years before Columbus and his people undertook to evangel- 
ize the peaceful inhabitants of the West, the Church was 
solicitous enough to send out one of her servants to teach 
the natives the truths of the Gospel, and to bring them 
within the fold. Unfortunately, the great plague that well- 
nigh depopulated Norway put an end for many years to 
schemes of distant philanthropy and foreign adventure. 

Nor was Vinland the only section of America on which 
the European had set his foot. "Great Ireland" antedates 
even these early attempts and had long been discovered by 
men from Ireland when Are Marsen visited that region in 
983. They occupied the country south of the Chesapeake Bay, 
including North and South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida. 
When in 999, Gudlief Gudlangson and his sailors were driven 
by storms to America, they landed in an unknown region, 
where they were at once met by several hundred natives 
whose language was apparently Irish. The methods of these 
natives were not as courteous and civilized as those of 
their modern descendants, for they at once seized the for- 
eigners and bound them, thus forcibly signifying their doc- 
trine of home rule and their determination to retain the 
country for themselves as the rightful owners thereof. They 
did not harm the unwilling invaders of their territory, how- 
ever, but allowed them to depart unmolested, after signifying 
with marked emphasis that it would not be safe to remain — 
a piece of wise conduct that might have been emulated with 



advantage by the natives who afterwards received some of 
the followers of Columbus with open arms. 

From the historical fragments left us it is almost certain that 
Columbus knew of the existence of a continent in the far 
West. He was by profession a geographer and earned his 
living by drawing and selling charts that were highly es- 
teemed for their accuracy. The study of the physical world 
was his favorite pursuit. It is to be presumed that he knew 
of these subjects all that the learned men of his day had 
acquired ; with these elements of fact to work upon his in- 
genious mind could reach but one conclusion. A strong ad- 
ditional circumstance lends weight to these considerations. 
There is no doubt that in or about 1427 Columbus visited 
Iceland, which has been termed the hinge upon which the 
discovery of America turned. There he must necessarily have 
learned something of the traditions which preserved the old 
Norse discoveries from oblivion. Can it be supposed that he, 
filled as he was with the ambition of making his way to 
India through undiscovered seas, never heard of Vinland nor 
of the Bishop appointed by Paschal ? Then, too, Adam von 
Bremen's account had been published in 1073, if we may 
speak of publication before the invention of printing, and 
perpetuated the brave deeds of the Norse navigators. No 
wonder, then, that Coltmibus spoke and acted as though he 
knew rather than conjectured, calculated or imagined. 
"When he had formed his theory," says Washington Irving, 
"it became fixed in his mind with singular firmness. He 
never spoke in doubt or hesitation, but with as much cer- 
tainty as if his eyes had already seen the promised land." 
A very probable statement and a very natural condition of 
mind if he had read of the Norse discoveries, the Irish set- 
tlement, the Papal appointment of a Bishop to Vinland, and 
was familiar with the household traditions of the Norsemen. 

We may, then, assume the truth of the proposition that the 
condition of the public mind was such that an attempt to 
penetrate the mystery of the Western seas was inevitable, 
and the further proposition that of all men fitted for the task 
none was more competent than Columbus. That he should 
have become possessed of this one fixed, absorbing thought 



was not strange. He was ambitious of honors, title, wealth, 
power and fame; all these lay on the route to India, the 
land of Solomon's Mines, the Ophir of boundless promise, the 
undiscovered country which held in its bosom treasures 
vast enough to challenge the wildest imagination, to realize 
the wildest dream. 

Why the effort was so long delayed, why Columbus him- 
self, eloquent, learned, enthusiastic as he was, wore away 
twenty long years in the vain attempt to enlist royal sym- 
pathy in favor of his scheme, seems difficult to account for, 
but some reasons for the strange lethargy may be ad- 
vanced. 

The natural fear of the Unknown has always fed upon a 
superstitious fear of Providence. The Roman poet strongly 
and beautifully expressed it when he condemned the rest- 
less spirit of men who leaped over the natural boundaries 
created by Jove — who dared to sail over the waters which 
the Deity had interposed as a barrier between dissociated 
continents, and who, by their impious disregard of Divine 
laws, challenged Jove's wrath and never permitted his thun- 
ders to intermit their destructive bolts. A feeling somewhat 
akin to this still survived and was only beginning to yield 
before a more general diffusion of enlightened views. 

The proposed attempt to brave the horrors of the un- 
known ocean was looked upon by many as impious and 
dangerous, at one and the same time. The anger of the 
sea was less to be dreaded than the wrath of its Master. 
Men had been warned by Divine lips that they should not 
tempt the Lord their God ; what was this bold venture into 
the very jaws of death btit a challenge and a defiance to 
the Almighty ? Scientific reasons were often brushed aside 
even by learned men. Some of these, while admitting the 
rotundity of the earth, still urged the rashness of the at- 
tempt. Grant that the world was round, grant that a hardy 
na\'igator might sail far into unknown regions, the moment 
would come when, the Antipodes being reached, the doomed 
ship must drop from the sea that has thus far sustained 
her weight, and, plunging helplessly into infinite space, meet 
a fate as dreadful as it was deserved. And if by some 



strange and hitherto unknown physical law, the fated bark 
still clung to the slippery waters, how could it be expected 
that, in defiance of all principles and all rules of physics, 
she would climb back, upon the -liquid and treacherous hill, 
to the point whence she had started ? Thus, a little knowl- 
edge proved a dangerous thing ; it gave the objector the 
prestige of scientific acquirements in dealing with the mat- 
ter, and he was only the more dangerous because he was 
somewhat less ignorant than his followers. 

The arguments from Scripture were especially dangerous, 
and were perhaps the most difiicult to answer. They came 
from pious and good men, who placed their own narrow 
interpretation upon isolated passages, and gave them a mean- 
ing which condemned such attempts as blasphemous. The 
prophets and the fathers of the Church were frequently 
quoted as being conclusively opposed to the plans of Colum- 
bus. Lactantius was cited as saying that it was the height 
of absurdity to pretend that there was such a part of the 
world as the Antipodes were supposed to represent, where 
men walked about with their heels in the air and their 
heads down ; where human beings had their feet directly 
opposite to ours ; where everything was reversed, the trees 
growing with their roots in the air and the branches in the 
ground. No one could deny that such propositions were very 
absurd, and in fact incredible, if faith in the Antipodes 
obliged belief in such an upheaval and reversal of physical 
laws. Then, too, it had been said that all men came from 
Adam, which was surely not the case if there was another 
race of men in that fabulous country. Finally, some learned 
doctors, applying a figurative test to the exigencies of the 
discussion, cited the passages of the Scriptures wherein it is 
stated that the Lord stretched the skies over the land like 
unto a tent, which was clearly impossible if the earth was 
round. At least so they argued, and with no small success. 

Against these and other such adversaries Columbus waged 
his battle. He was himself a pious man, deeply imbued 
with the doctrines of the Church. His reply was, therefore, 
such as a devout Christian would venture to offer ; it was 
not the sneer of a scoflEer, nor the challenge of an infidel. 

34 



He sought to reconcile the truths of Scripture with those 
which he gathered from science and experience, and to deal 
gently and patiently with ignorance and prejudice, whatever 
their origin and whatever the garb in which they were 
clothed. He was eloquent, enthusiastic, learned and skillful 
in debate ; but with all these qualities he might have failed 
in his purpose but for the timely aid of churchmen whose 
orthodoxy was beyond dispute. Diego de Deza, in partic- 
ular, a Dominican, subsequently Bishop of Toledo, gave him 
his warm support, and lent the color of religious regularity 
to the advocacy of the new cause. Other religious men 
joined him to overcome the opposition that had so bitterly 
assailed Columbus and his strange theories ; but even with 
this valuable aid, it was a long and weary contest, that 
wore out the great adventurer's best days. Portugal, Genoa, 
Spain, were each in turn appealed to. The confident hope of 
a result that would startle the world and enrich the pro- 
moters of his cause beyond their dreams was urged in vain 
to incredulous ears. Inconceivable as was this stubborn re- 
sistance to his appeals, it baffled him for years, and he 
would probably have ended his days without sight of the 
promised land but for the friend whom a kind Providence 
placed upon his path, when hope was well-nigh dead. 
The prior of the humble convent of La Rabida received 
the weary traveler when his fortunes were at their lowest 
ebb ; his charity revived the wanderer when with his young 
son he turned his back upon great visions to seek for food 
and shelter. These, with gentle sympathy, the good prior 
gave from his heart to the baffled and dispirited chart- 
maker. He filled him with new courage, started him afresh 
upon his journey, put money in his purse, furnished him 
with letters of commendation to the Queen, with fitting 
garments for one who aspired to enter and ask the favor of 
a Court ; and, more than all, with the assurance that, be 
the treatment of that Court what it might, the door of La 
Rabida was ever open and ready to receive its one-time 
guest with unfailing love. Wherever the story of Columbus 
is told, the name of Juan Perez should be named with rev- 
erence. Amid all the vanities and petty ambitions of the 



time and occasion, he stands out almost alone as the em- 
bodiment of all that is best in human nature. No selfish 
motives tainted his action. As has been well and truly- 
said, the prior gave Columbus his heart, and, strange to 
tell, he never took it back. 

Thanks to Juan Perez, Columbus had audience of the 
King and Queen, an admirably assorted couple for the func- 
tions in which they were engaged. Ferdinand contributed 
the caution, Isabella the liberal qualities necessary to govern 
the country over which they ruled. Isabella was ready to 
pawn her jewels for a worthy cause, if funds could not 
otherwise be secured. Ferdinand would be sure to enquire 
whether the venture was likely to pay expenses and a profit. 
Isabella alone would have wrecked the treasury with a 
glorious disregard of financial results. Ferdinand would have 
conducted the royal business by strict rules of arithmetic, 
unrelieved by generous diversions or sentimental deflections, 
even if these were calculated to secure popular applause 
and sympathy. He would never go to war for an idea, 
unless the expulsion of the Moors be deemed such a one ; 
but there was, even in that attempt to drive out the unbe- 
liever, a practical side. In their dealing Avith Columbus, 
the dual nature of the royal association was manifested. 
Isabella was anxious to plunge into the adventure, without 
reference to the terms proposed by Columbus ; Ferdinand 
declined to invest his money except upon such conditions as 
would make the risk a reasonable one. It must be admitted 
here that the settlement of the bargain, for such it was, in- 
volved no deception or undue advantage on either side. 
Columbus was quite equal to the occasion, and quite a match 
for his kingly patron. He was bent on carrying the faith 
to the Infidel, of bringing unnumbered heathen wretches 
within the pale of the Church ; he was eager to push the 
glory of the Empire of Spain to the remotest ends of the 
earth. This was the argument ad hominem, or rather ad 
foeinitiam, with which he mastered the enthusiastic and pious 
temperament of Isabella ; but Ferdinand was made of harder 
and more practical material. No doubt his feelings toward 
his unknown brethren of the remote West were kind enough, 

36 



but then these people were far away and mysterious, and it 
was not possible to say in advance how lovable or valuable 
they would turn out to be. Then the greatness of Spain 
and her glory, though dear to the King of Aragon, were 
expensive luxuries to sustain and required a surplus in the 
treasury ; glory and a deficit were incompatible and incon- 
sistent adjuncts to his crown. But when Columbus told him 
of the treasures that he might secure while he saved the 
soul of the heathen, and put his finger, as it were, on Sol- 
omon's Mines, while he extended the Castilian Empire, Fer- 
dinand's desire for profit was quickened into something like 
sympathy. The parties of the first part and of the second 
part being agreed as to the expediency of entering into the 
operation, the party of the third part stated his terms. 
They indicated in clear language the determination of the 
explorer to realize a full share of the financial benefits likely 
to accrue from the union of the capital to be contributed 
by his associates and the labor to be contributed by him- 
self. He did not betray any undue modesty in the state- 
ment of his expectations. He required the title and privi- 
leges of an Admiral, the powers and prerogatives of a Vice- 
roy, and ten per cent, in perpetuity of the income to be 
derived from the new possessions, this income to be paid to 
him and his heirs forever. 

These conditions startled the King, who refused to accept 
them. The titles, no doubt, were well enough, and he might 
consent to ennoble the successful adventurer and his remotest 
posterity with lavish profusion, provided the commission on 
the possible revenues were reduced to a reasonable percent- 
age. But ten per cent, forever ! The royal conscience re- 
belled at such demands ; they far exceeded the limits which 
any subject had a right to touch in negotiating with his 
sovereign. The King was firm and Columbus obstinate. 
Isabella was indifferent to the business aspect of the affair. 
Her motives were of a higher order, and to carry them 
out she was willing to subscribe to any terms that her in- 
tended associate saw fit to exact. Her consort was strong 
enough for the time being, however, to carry the day, and 
Columbus, firmly rooted in the commercial instincts of his 



Genoese ancestors — if they were Genoese — once more turned 
his back on the Court and once more sought the society 
and counsel of his old friend and helper, the monk of La 
Rabida. 

But once more, as in the past, the ready hand and heart 
of Juan Perez did their work, and Columbus, with renewed 
courage and hope, started to interest the French monarch 
in his plans. Would the latter have been more generous 
than his brother King ? Would he have added the percentage 
in cash to the payment in honors and heritable titles ? That 
question cannot be solved. The influence of the good Queen 
prevailed, the King relented and signified his assent to the 
demands which he had thus far rejected. What influenced 
him to this change of spirit we may only conjecture. Perhaps 
it was a natural inclination to please his gentle wife ; per- 
haps the fear that in striving to save ten per cent, he 
might lose ninety ; perhaps he knew (and he remembered 
in after days) that agreements between King and subject 
are always open to Royal revision and may be read in the 
right spirit, that is, as the Royal pleasure may suggest. 
Like the Lion in the fable, the share of the Monarch is 
what he chooses to claim: "I take this," says the Lion, 
''quia noini7ior Leo, because my name is Lion" — an un- 
answerable argument, from time immemorial. 

Even at this stage of the proceedings the current did not 
flow smoothly. The money, although promised, shrank tim- 
idly from the risks which it was to run. Isabella had 
threatened to pawn her jewels, but this sacrifice was not 
exacted from her. The brothers Piuzon had become inter- 
ested through Juan Perez in the proposed trip to an unknown 
world, and, thanks to them, the paltry sum was found which 
made the voyage practicable. By virtue of a slight modifi- 
cation in the agreement, Columbus was to furnish one-eighth 
of the funds, but this he was able to do through his new 
friends. The contract, when finally reduced to writing, was 
executed on the 17th of April, 1492 ; it was really the con- 
tract of Isabella of Castile, though signed by both monarchs ; 
her subjects alone were permitted to settle in the new coun- 
try so long as she lived. 

38 



Columbus was not compelled to wait until success tad 
placed the seal on his work to receive some of his reward. 
His name was changed from Columbus to Colon ; he was 
graciously permitted to use the prefix Don, and his son 
was allowed to serve as a page to the Queen, a privilege 
which gave him access to the society of young people whose 
blood was blue. Thus, to some extent at least, was he paid 
in advance. Ferdinand was a munificent king in the distri- 
bution of all those rewards the giving of which in no wise 
diminished the supply at his command. 

When Columbus went back to the small monastery and to 
the faithful friend who loved him still, the good prior re- 
joiced as though the victory were his and he were to receive 
large profits and brilliant titles. He lent a willing hand to 
the preparations for the great voyage ; he helped to smooth 
over the countless impediments that still grew, like rank 
weeds, in the discoverer's path. Three poor caravels had 
been found, the Santa Maria, the Nina and the Pinta ; they 
had been made, thanks to the Pinzon advances, fairly sea- 
worthy, but when the time came to man them, the old ter- 
ror and superstition threatened destruction to everything. 
Men would not embark on the ill-fated ships, rigged with 
curses dark as those that brought young Lycidas to grief. 
Sailors were plenty enough and daring enough, but they all 
wanted to return from any voyage on which they started, 
and how were they ever to get back to their own world 
after they had dropped into infinite ether, or sailed rap- 
idly down the liquid hill ? This difficulty, too, was van- 
quished. The scum of the seafaring population of the coun- 
try was forced into the ships, and with a motley crew of 
bankrupts fleeing from their creditors, of criminals fleeing 
from justice, and of adventurers eager to feast their eyes 
upon and to fill their hands with the promised gold, the 
three ships sailed. 

They left Palos on Friday, the third day of August, 1492, 
the good prior watching from the shore to the last, and 
praying for the friend he had served so well. Then com- 
menced the weary journey, with its dangers and its doubts. 
A sullen crew, animated by sordid motives, and ever ready 

39 



to visit disappointment on its master, mutiny in a chronic 
state, and a strong, brave chief, as well fitted to cope with 
the rebellion of men as he was able to meet the hostile 
fury of the waves. Of him, indeed, it might be said, that 
his heart was cased in oak and triple brass, as the poet 
describes the fearless man who first entrusted his life, in a 
frail bark, to the cruel sea. From the first day to the last 
he was undaunted. His assurance of ultimate success was 
such that the belief grows upon us when we contemplate 
it, that he knew that the land lay before him, and approxi- 
mately calculated the distance that he would have to sail. 
That he was wrong, in one respect, no one doubts ; he ex- 
pected to find the continent of Asia, and found America 
blocking his way. But his confidence can only be explained 
on the theory that he had mastered the facts and was 
serene in consequence of the assurance they gave. As 
to his discontented and mutinous followers, he dealt with 
them as men of his stamp alone can deal. He awed them 
by his majestic bearing ; he encouraged them by his unfail- 
ing confidence ; he drew upon his vivid imagination to 
depict in glowing words the incalculable wealth of the new 
countries they were about to reach. He used the only argu- 
ment potential with them. They wanted gold, gold in 
abundance, without stint, without labor, without hindrance ; 
he promised that they should have it to their heart's desire. 
With these promises and some deception as to the course that 
they were daily running, he succeeded in keeping them from 
open violence, until they entered upon the pleasant waters 
of the South and met unmistakable evidences that they were 
nearing land. Carved woods, branches of fresh flowers, the 
limb of a tree, which bore upon its fragile structure a bird's 
nest, with the mother bird guarding her young covey — these 
and other signs left no doubt in reasonable minds that the 
land was at hand. The balmy sweetness of the air was like 
their own Andalusian spring-time ; they only lacked the 
nightingale, said Columbus. But a new panic seized upon 
the men as confidence was beginning to overcome unreason- 
ing fear. The wind died out, and days passed wdth nothing 
to relieve the anxious monotony that suggested danger in a 



new form. What if this were a region of endless calm and 
they were fated to die one by one in their motionless ships, 
the victim of one man's folly and reckless ambition ? He, 
at least, was a scape-goat, and might be offered up as a 
sacrifice or be punished for his crime. But he waited and 
compelled their patience until the sluggish winds once more 
filled their sails, and once more the men forgot to compass 
their leader's death, in the hope that they would reach land 
and fortune together. 

Who first sighted that land is yet a question. Columbus, 
whether he felt himself unable further to resist the threats 
and importunities of his crew, or because he had calculated 
to his own satisfaction that he was about to reach his goal, 
solemnly promised that he would turn back and sail homeward 
if land were not seen within three days. The mutineers 
consented to this delay, and their murmurs were quieted for 
a while. On the second day the signs were so favorable that 
the seditious sailors fell upon their knees ; they besought 
their leader for pardon, and sang hymns of praise to the kind- 
ness of the Creator who had brought them so near the end 
of their labors and dangers. A reward had been promised 
to the man who would first sight the land. As Columbus, 
sleepless and vigilant, was pacing the deck of the Santa 
Maria, he saw, or thought he saw, a light ; but previous dis- 
appointments had made him wary. He called the attention 
of two of his fellow-watchers to the light that rose and fell ; 
one of them saw it, or thought he saw it, but fearing a new 
disappointment, they all remained silent. In the early morn- 
ing, however, the Pinta's cannon announced and truly that 
land was in view ; this was the concerted signal by which 
the joyful news might be loudly proclaimed to all. 

And now we have the culminating point of the great ex- 
plorer's life. His triumph was without alloy. It was even 
greater in appearance than in fact. He believed that he had 
at last found the land of promise and of untold wealth, and 
as he left his ship and stepped ashore, clad in purple and 
bearing the insignia of his newly-won honors, he might well 
exult in the fulfillment of his prophecies and the realization 
of his dreams. He was now entitled, under his contract, to 



the rewards which he coveted ; he might now bring the sim- 
ple and harmless men, women and children who met him 
on the shore within the fold of the Church. No misgivings 
entered his mind. The island on which he first set his foot 
must be at the very door of the Indies, and with becoming 
reverence he baptized it in the Saviour's name, San Sal- 
vador. 

Then commenced a series of adventures in Dreamland by- 
daylight ; at least such it must have seemed to the trav- 
elers. The loveliness of the skies, the gentleness of the in- 
habitants, the songs of the birds; the pure and balmy atmos- 
phere — above all, the confident hope of forthcoming gold — were 
indeed such as to fill their hearts with joy, and almost to 
justify the belief that the Earthly Paradise had been found. 
If that hope could only be realized, their happiness would be 
complete ; for we cannot close our eyes to the fact that 
whatever Columbus personally may have felt, the gentle 
heathen and his salvation were the accessory and not the 
principal subject of the general solicitude. The feverish anx- 
iety to secure the yellow metal of which the trinkets were 
made that adorned the persons of the inhabitants, the nu- 
merous inquiries as to the source whence that metal had 
been procured, the interest exhibited for its acquisition, could 
not but impress the astonished native, who believed that 
Gold was the God of his new visitors. Columbus himself 
allowed his great and noble purposes to be deferred to 
satisfying the greed of his crew, and with earnest appeals 
to the Almighty, he prayed for instructions that might lead 
him to fortune. "Our Lord, in whose hands are all things, 
be my help," he cries. "Our Lord, in His mercy, direct 
me where I may find the gold mine." They wandered from 
island to island — kidnapping a dozen or two of the natives 
who had never been taught resistance, greed or cruelty — m 
quest of the undiscovered treasures. Every point that he 
touched was, according to Columbus' narrative, more beauti- 
ful than all the rest ; in fact, he indulges in such wild and 
extravagant expressions of delight, that a suspicion is raised 
(as Prescott has it) that a temporary alienation of mind is 
shown in the letters which he wrote from Jamaica to the 



sovereigns. "Sober narrative and sound reasoning were 
strangely blended with crazy dreams and doleful lamenta- 
tions. Vagaries like these," adds Prescott, "which came 
occasionally like clotids over his soul to shut out the light 
of reason, cannot fail to fill the mind of the reader, as they 
doubtless did those of the sovereigns, with mingled senti- 
ments of wonder and compassion." Our lamented friend. 
Dr. Gilmary Shea, has pointed out in his work on Columbus, 
that "he seems to have succeeded in attaching to himself 
but few men who adhered loyally to his cause. Those under 
him were constantly rebellious and mutinous ; those over him 
found him impracticable. To arraign all these enemies, as in- 
spired by a Satanic hostility to a great servant of God, is to 
ask too much of our belief." 

It would extend this paper far beyond any reasonable limit 
if I sought to enter into anything more than a rapid and 
cursory narrative of the four voyages that Columbus made to 
America and thence back to Spain. 

The first was the only one which gave him unmixed glory 
and happiness. He then touched the pinnacle of his fame, 
and the descent after that to ruin and disgrace was as dis- 
tressing as it was rapid. Up to the moment of his death 
he believed that when he set his foot on the soil of Cuba 
he stood on the Continent of Asia. With that delusion firm 
and fixed, he died. At least we may assume that it was 
really entertained by him, although the dramatic conditions 
that accompanied his first declaration of the fact might shake 
our belief in his good faith. One of his first acts on taking 
possession of the island was to impose an oath upon his 
men, making them declare that they had reached the coast 
of Asia. Such an exaction seems hardly consistent with 
entire sanity. 

Perhaps nothing can give a better idea of the effect pro- 
duced by these strange sights upon so strong an intellect as 
that of Columbus than the fact he was quite assured that 
he had seen mermaids in these southern waters. The pro- 
saic explanation given is that they were probably sea calves, ' 
and that their heads, when slightly lifted above the water, 
bore a general resemblance to the human face. The truth is 

43 



that everything around him was new and mysterious ; there 
was no difficulty in believing that such romantic persons 
lived in the sea. 

Columbus received a right royal reception on his return. 
Both sovereigns rose to receive him standing ; and when he 
stooped to kiss their hands, they gently and graciously lifted 
him and bade him sit. Then he told his story, and from 
time to time produced the evidences of his veracity. He 
showed the Indians that he had captured, the birds, the 
skins, the barbaric ornaments and the samples of gold which 
he had brought with him, and when the Te Deum had 
been chanted, he was treated as a royal guest and assigned 
lodgings under the royal roof. This period of a few weeks 
was really the only time of unalloyed happiness that Colum- 
bus ever enjoyed. He was not averse to public scenes nor 
disposed to shrink from the plaudits of an admiring multi- 
tude ; when he passed among the excited throngs his face 
beamed with content. There was no trouble then to find 
volunteers for another transatlantic voyage ; the specimens of 
hard and yellow gold were more eloquent than any dis- 
course that had ever been spoken by Columbus. The curb 
became more necessary than the spur when the new ex- 
pedition was fitted out. Capital had lost its shrinking and 
sensitive modesty, in view of assured success. All the ships 
in the ports of Andalusia were placed at Columbus' disposal, 
and he was authorized to compel service from those whom 
he chose to carry with him on his expedition. Military stores 
were abundantly provided ; able and intelligent supervisors 
aided him ; among these we find the name of Americus Ves- 
pucius. 

The conversion of the heathens to Christianity was formally 
declared to be one of the most important objects of the 
enterprise. The King and Queen showed their good faith 
by designating twelve learned priests to accompany the ex- 
pedition ; one of them was the apostolical vicar. Isabella's 
kind heart had been moved by the accounts of the gentle- 
ness and simplicity of the natives to consider them with 
tender compassion, and to her credit be it said that she 
strictly enjoined that they should be treated with the utmost 



kindness. Columbus was ordered to inflict signal punishment 
on all Spaniards who should be guilty of outrage and in- 
justice toward them. 

About fifteen hundred men started upon the second expe- 
dition. They carried with them goats, sheep, cows and 
domestic fowls. Once more the fleet entered the beautiful 
regions of the South. Porto Rico and other islands were 
visited and taken possession of in the name of Spain. The 
adventurers met the Caribs, who were said by Columbus 
to be very fierce and given to eating human flesh. 
Whether it be true that these barbarous people were 
actually addicted to such revolting practices may well be 
doubted. Even Mr. Irving, one of the most earnest defend- 
ers of Columbus' fame, ventures to question the reliability 
of these statements. There is but little to support and 
much to contradict the charge. Hayti was reached and 
visited for the second time. The natives had heard of 
Columbus on his first voyage and still entertained a 
friendly disposition toward him. They came on board the 
ship without hesitation or fear. The Admiral had left 
behind him a colony of men on the former trip, and the 
fortress that he had built was found and visited ; nothing 
remained except vestiges of ruin to show where it had 
stood. It had been sacked, burned and utterly destroyed. 
The story was soon told, and there is no reason to doubt 
its substantial truth. While Columbus was present he was 
able to exercise some restraint upon the fierce passions of his 
men, but no sooner had his ship disappeared in the dis- 
tance than the new colonists abandoned themselves to all 
their brutal instincts. They wandered uncontrolled among 
the Indians ; they robbed them of their gold, of their homes, 
of everything that was sacred in their domestic relations. 
If the Indians did suppose, as has been said, that the 
white men had come down from heaven to visit them, that 
illusion was soon dispelled in the wild debauch of unmer- 
ciful brutality. Even after these four centuries, it is pleas- 
ant to draw a veil upon that scene and many others 
that accompanied the first settlement of America. 

We may turn with comfort from this picture and con- 



template the good and holy men, members of the same 
old faith, who were among the first to explore the wilder- 
ness of America for the heathen's sake ; the noble martyrs 
who with the staff and cross, with no hope of reward 
except the saving of souls, hungry, worn, persecuted and 
tortured, walked, alone and unguarded, the wilderness of 
the lake country, pushed their way to the Father of Rivers, 
preached the gospel to the savage whom they startled by 
their audacity, shed no blood but their own, permitted no 
torture but of their own bodies, pitied all men except them- 
selves, and thought every danger and torment a gain if it 
promised honor and glory to their God. If we feel at any 
time disposed unduly to honor Columbus the Catholic, let 
us evoke the picture of the Jesuit pioneers of the country 
that he discovered. The testimony of these martyrs will 
silence History if she exalts him beyond his merits. 

The third voyage was another step on the downward 
plane. The machinations of unrelenting enemies produced 
their bitter fruit. But for the faithful brothers Bartholomew 
and Diego, it is not likely that Columbus would have sur- 
vived to see his home once more. The era of bloodshed 
had been opened ; so-called battles had been fought, and 
the natives, by thousands upon thousands, were destroyed. 
Resistance to the steel-clad horsemen was out of the ques- 
tion. We need not wonder that the stranger, with two 
hundred infantry and twenty horsemen, flanked by twenty 
bloodhounds as fierce as tigers, were able to meet and con- 
quer one hundred thousand men, nor that the victory of the 
Spaniards was complete, and that the natives were crushed 
beyond hope of redemption ! 

It is pleasing, again, to turn to Isabella, who continued 
to regard these gentle and unoffending natives as intrusted 
by God to her peculiar protection. Her disinterested love 
was not turned into avarice, even by a cargo of five hun- 
dred slaves that were sent her. An order was issued for 
their sale, but she countermanded it, and directed that the 
captives should be returned to their own land. Again she 
sent a special order that the natives should be treated 
with the utmost kindness. But great wrongs had been per- 

46 



petrated before this ineffectual evidence of a loving heart 
reached its destination. 

Meanwhile public sentiment was changing as to the value 
of the discovery. The ship-loads of gold had not come in ; 
a few cargoes of slaves were but a small realization of the 
brilliant expectations that had charmed the imagination of 
sovereigns and subjects. Men had come back from these 
transatlantic voyages worn, disabled, broken in health and 
spirit. Extreme measures were again necessary to secure 
crews. Convicted malefactors were offered pardon if they 
would embark for the colonies. The enthusiasm had died 
out ; discouragement and distress had set in ; the star of 
Columbus had grown pale, it was soon to emit its last fitful 
gleam of intermittent light. 

It was on this third voyage that Columbus, for the first 
time, had a glimpse of the Continent which was to be 
called America. But Sebastian Cabot the year before had 
already discovered the continent ; so had Americus Ves- 
pucius. The trip was one of great suffering and disap- 
pointment. To the mental distress which well-nigh over- 
whelmed him were added the tortures of gout and fail- 
ing sight ; still he did not surrender to changing fortune, 
and with unshaken fortitude he revisited the scenes of his 
first discoveries and touched from time to time at new 
islands. 

While Columbus was absent on his unpromising, ill- 
omened voyage, the clamors against him swelled into a 
chorus loud enough to reach the Court. Complaints were 
many, some of them perhaps not without foundation. One 
of his chief lieutenants rebelled and entered into open con- 
flict with him. In an unguarded moment, Columbus re- 
quested that an umpire might be sent out to decide the 
question. This was the signal for his downfall. Ferdinand 
sent out an umpire in the person of Bobadilla, and the 
result was that Columbus returned home in chains. 

The Queen greeted her old friend with tears, while he, 
moved by her compassion and sympathy, fell upon his knees, 
weeping convulsively. He was old and worn and broken 
physically ; nothing but his lofty spirit had stood the cruel 



tests to which he had been subjected. The accusations 
made by Bobadilla were disregarded. Favor and affection 
were once more lavished upon Columbus, and abundant 
promises made, which were never kept. If the account of 
Las Casas be true of the condition of the natives under 
Bobadilla, the estate of those unfortunate people was made 
worse by the change of masters. 

And now preparations were made for a fourth voyage. 
Other courts had been gained by the contagion and inocu- 
lated with the ambition of great adventures. Da Gama 
had doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and was enriching 
Portugal with the products of the East. Columbus was to 
start in quest of a strait, supposed to be somewhere near 
the Isthmus of Darien and connecting the two great oceans. 
After many delays, the fleet of four vessels was ready 
to sail. The largest of the caravels was but seventy tons 
burden and his whole company amounted to one hun- 
dred and fifty men. He turned his back for the last time 
upon Spain, an old man, exhausted with anxiety and 
trouble, and racked with physical sickness. Time and 
adversity had subdued all but the unconquerable will, and 
once more his faithful brother Bartholomew accompanied him 
to guard, protect and defend him. 

Columbus now visited Honduras and Costa Rica. He ex- 
plored bays on the Isthmus of Panama, and found evi- 
dence that gold in large quantities was to be had in these 
regions, but his shattered health paralj'zed all physical exer- 
tion, while his leaking ships warned him that he should 
hasten to return. He attempted to establish a colony on 
the river Belden, where he intended to leave his brother in 
command while he returned to Spain for supplies. 

The fourth voyage ended almost in total disaster. It was 
full of disappointment and suffering. Cyclones, insurrections, 
hunger and the fear of starvation caused Columbus the 
deepest anxiety. His ships could not be repaired, nor 
could he build new ones. The situation at Jamaica became 
so critical that Columbus was constrained to send one of 
his followers to Hispaniola, in a canoe, a distance of one 
hundred and twenty miles, to procure relief, for destruction 

48 



waited upon inaction. They dared not start upon their 
return with their decayed and broken ships ; the dreary 
weeks ran into months, every day bringing its new weight 
of woe to the desperate situation. Mutiny was added to 
the other elements of dissolution. Finally, the Indians could 
no longer be forced to bring food from a distance, and con- 
tinued to resist until Columbus, working upon their super- 
stitious fears, called them together and predicted a total 
eclipse of the moon, a sign, he declared, of the Divine 
wrath, which would soon be directed against the disobedient 
natives if they did not at once procure supplies. The 
eclipse came, and the terrified Indians, in trembling submis- 
sion, helped their persecutors to live. 

Finally, after new mutinies and a pitched battle between 
contending factions of angry Spaniards, Columbus left the 
new world to return to Spain. He reached his country a 
weak and tottering old man. His faithftil friend, the 
Queen, was herself upon her death-bed ; no greeting from 
her, as formerly, warmed the drooping spirits of the Ad- 
miral. He found his financial affairs in the utmost con- 
fusion. His great expectations of brilliant rewards had 
never borne fruit. Poor as he was when he left Spain in 
August 1492, he was actually poorer when he returned 
home to die. The royal contract which he had been at 
such pains to secure, gave him no rights that he could 
enforce. Ferdinand's conscience was no longer quickened, 
his generosity no longer stimulated by the presence and 
kindness of his Queen. The pressure upon his treasury 
was great, and the relief which he had expected from the 
promises of Columbus had never come. Gold from America 
he had seen, but only in such quantities as to sharpen 
desire, not to satisfy greed. He could not read the future, 
and he did not, therefore, know that royal revenues were 
to flow into the coffers of his successors, not so much 
from the gold mines that time would uncover as from the 
marvelous tobacco plant that Columbus had found in Cuba. 
He may have felt that the exactions which he had been 
coerced to accept when the agreement was made, had been 
imposed upon him by a sort of duress. At all events, he 



turned a deaf ear to the supplications of his one-time asso- 
ciate, and postponed the manifestation of his gratitude until 
Columbus was beyond the reach either of his favor or his 
anger. The discoverer was not suffering alone from cruel 
disease, but for lack of the actual necessaries of life. "I 
live by borrowing," he said ; "little have I profited by 
twenty years' service, with such toils and perils, since at 
present I do not own a roof in Spain, and for the most 
time I have not the wherewithal to pay my bill." This 
came from a man who had actually sat in the presence of 
royalty, and who had been decorated with the titles of 
Don, of Admiral, and of Viceroy ! These poor honors were 
all he had to leave his children. He earnestly besought 
the king to appoint his son Diego to the viceroyalty, of 
which he had been so cruelly deprived. "This," he wrote, 
"is a matter which concerns my honor. Give or withhold, 
as may be most for your interest, and I shall be content. 
I believe the anxiety created by the delay of this affair is 
the principal cause of my sickness." But in spite of this 
care for earthly honors, distinction and titles for himself 
and those that v-ere to foUovv^ him, his thoughts were 
turned to greater things. Be his weaknesses what they 
may, an ardent love for the Church had been a conspicu- 
ous feature in his life, in his thoughts, and in his acts. 
The sense of responsibility for all that he had done was 
before him to the end, lightened and brightened by a con- 
fident hope, frequently expressed, that his shortcomings 
would be mercifully condoned. His mind turned with pa- 
thetic affection to the small town of Concepcion, in His- 
paniola, which he himself had founded, and there, on the 
new land, which could never be mentioned except in con- 
nection with his own fame, he desired that a chapel should 
be raised, where Divine service should be celebrated for his 
benefit and that of all whom he loved. 

Death did not take him unawares or unprovided ; he saw 
its approach without dismay. Indeed, in his straitened and 
distressed condition. Death was the only friend upon whose 
face he could look with anything like hope. Life had and 
could have nothing in store for him but sickness and 



heavier sorrow. His fortunes were broken, his glory on the 
wane, his family poor, his bodj'- racked by pain. What 
wonder that he should have longed for the hour of depart- 
ure ? When the message came, he welcomed it with joy. 
His last words were uttered in Latin : " /« manus tuas, 
Domz'ne, cojmncndo spiritum meum," "Into thy hands, O 
Lord, I commend my spirit." 

Then being dead and no longer an obstruction in the 
royal path, or an unpleasant reminder to the royal con- 
science, royalty once more smiled upon him. A gorgeous 
funeral atoned, so far as it could, for neglect and injustice. 
Great honors followed his corpse to the church of Santa 
Maria de la Antigua. His enemies were silenced and com- 
forted by the reflection that he could no longer interfere 
with their fortunes. The King was relieved and promptly 
placed a glorious seal upon the greatest episode of his 
reign. He was able to balance, by posthumous and inex- 
pensive tributes, the open account pending between himself 
and his late partner. Isabella gone and Columbus in his 
grave, the only one of the firm then left was Ferdinand. 
He could wind up the business to suit himself. 

But the remains of Columbus were not permitted to rest 
in Spain. Once more, but this time in unaccustomed peace, 
he crossed the Atlantic to find a resting place. It is said 
that his body still sleeps in the Cathedral of Havana, on 
that island which he had solemnly declared to be part of 
the continent of Asia. The claim of Havana to this honor 
is disputed, but the evidence seems to be conclusive, and 
we may state with something like certainty that the great 
Discoverer is now resting in the Cathedral of that city. 

Columbus, like all conspicuous actors in the history of 
the world, has had his critics and his panegyrists. Some 
have gone to the verge of extreme laudation, and others 
have condemned him with unsparing severity. History will 
side with neither of these extremists. We may fairlj'- judge 
him by what he did and what he failed to do. There 
is no recorded instance of more admirable tenacity of 
purpose nor of more unflinching devotion to one single 
idea ; none of courage more steadfast in the face of 



perils of every kind. But if we should measure him by 
the standard of to-day, nothing that his modern accusers 
have said in condemnation of many acts alleged against him 
would be too severe; but the standard of to-day may not 
with justice be applied to the man who lived four centuries 
ago. 

The accusation against Columbus is the traffic of slaves, 
but this had been and continued to be the practice of 
every nation for centuries after him, and of our own coun- 
try almost to our own generation. It may only be said, 
and this means much, that he was better than the men 
who were with him. We may not compare him to the 
venerable and humane Las Casas, but his name, when 
placed beside those of others who shared or marred his for- 
tunes, will shine with a lustre rendered brilliant by com- 
parison. It is much to say of any man that he was bet- 
ter than his day. This can be asserted of Columbus. Per- 
sonally, he appears to have been, in the ordinary relations 
of life, humane and just ; his pursuit of gold was certainly, 
in a great degree, the result of his anxiety to satisfy the 
King. Gold he had promised ; gold he was bound to fur- 
nish, and it was the failure to perform this promise that 
poisoned his life, cost him his popularity and hastened his 
death. 

Although the real merit to be attached to his discovery 
is subject to question because he started to reach Asia and 
stumbled upon America, yet he is entitled to ovir gratitude 
for the splendid service which he rendered, and to be 
placed on the roll of humanity's great servants. The ob- 
stacles in his way would have daunted any man not of 
heroic mould. If he showed an indifference to human life 
in dealing with the natives, we may not forget that life 
was cheap in the fifteenth century. Tenderness and hesitancy 
to shed a brother's blood were not in the morals and prac- 
tices of the times ; indeed they are not now, when Nations 
undertake for their own purposes to impress their civiliza- 
tion on an inferior people. That one of the motives which 
impelled and sustained him throughout was the desire to 
spread the Gospel through new lands can scarcely be dis- 



puted. Whether, after weighing these motives in the scales 
of infallible and eternal Justice, it will be found that this 
was in truth the mainspring of his action and the pure 
fountain of his unflinching purpose, or merely incident to 
a personal end, none can decide. I prefer to accept and 
to close with the wise and prudent words of the Sovereign 
Pontiff : 

"The eminently distinctive point in Columbus is that 
in crossing the immense expanses of the ocean, he fol- 
lowed an object more grand and more elevated than did 
the others. Not that he failed to be influenced by the 
very legitimate ambition to earn and to merit the approval 
of society, not that he despised the attributes of glory, 
that concomitant of success, whose spurs often cut more 
deeply those greatest among men, nor did he disdain en- 
tirely the pursuit of personal advantages; but above all 
those human considerations soared the leading motive in the 
religion of his forefathers. 

"Where, indeed, would he have supplied himself with the 
necessary constancy and strength of soul to endure what 
he had to suffer and submit to, had he not drawn 
upon a motive superior to human interests ? Contra- 
dicted by the learned ; repulsed by princes ; tossed b}' 
the tempest on the furious ocean ; more than once deprived 
of the use of his eyes by the strain of the long and weary 
watches ; to these must be added the combats sustained 
against the barbarians ; the infidelities of his friends and his 
companions ; the villainous plots and conspiracies ; the per- 
fidy of the envious ; the calumnies of the traducers, and 
the traps set against his innocence — this man must inevi- 
tably have succumbed under the weight of such great 
trials, and such numerous assaults, had he not been upheld 
by the conscience of his admirable enterprise, in the suc- 
cess of which he foresaw the greater glory of the Christian 
name, and the salvation of an endless multitude." 



S3 



THE DOMINICAN PAPER. 



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ISABHLLA THt- CATHOLIC, y 

From the recumbent statue upor\.|,^h^j^taf,el)^.j45ia(:^o]^ewn in 
the cathedral church of Granada,, Sc^ie • •■ -i- i r ■ 

After an eventful re^n uf thirty .years, during \yhich she 
had personally taken an ..heroic part ,%n the war for the 
deliverance of the kingdopi from the ,>Ioors; defended the 
borders of Spain from ;foreign, enemies; quelled , internal 
revolts and seditions ; introduced reforms of every kind in 
the state; made her court .a nursery of ,yirt;ie and generous 
ambition; extended to .. Columbus the aid and encourage- 
ment which has linked her name with his forever, and 
remained his steadfast friend while life lasted, she 
expired of a lingering malady on November 216, 1504, in 
the tifty-fourth year of her age. The engraving is fj-om 
Gavard's Galeries Historiques de Versailles, Paris, 1S43,, 



recognition cci 
on the . 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

AND 

THE DOMINICAN DIEGO DE DEZA. 




HE part of the Order of St. Dominic, in the 
series of events relative to the discovery of 
America, was not to have its term in mere intel- 
lectual collaboration. It had its great doctors, 
and fruitful was the action of their genius. They 
had largely ripened the scientific ideas which were carried 
through to the grand achievement of the end of the fifteenth 
century. But that was not enough. Some minds do not 
always see how remarkably near events often are to the 
ideas which begot them ; these may find the preoccupations 
of Christopher Columbus but remotely dependent on the 
cosmographical science of B. Albert the Great and of St. 
Thomas Aquinas. But, in the order of facts, it was again, 
and certainly, a Friar Preacher who was to have the glory 
of being the most constant and staunch supporter of the 
discoverer of the New World. 

Diego de Deza, the Dominican, was the great protector of 
Christopher Columbus. No other patronage is comparable to 
his, either as to duration or as to importance. It extended 
over a period of twenty years, from the arrival of Columbus 
in Spain down to the time of his death ; and its character 
was such as to bring about a practical realization of the 
celebrated navigator's projects. By singular good fortune 
there is in existence the authentic formula, subscribed by the 
illustrious protege's own hand, of his grateful recognition to 
Diego de Deza. 

Historical vulgarizations, ever prone to feed on the ampli- 
fied and imaginary, although they have not quite ignored 
Deza, have yet so relegated him to the background that it 



would be flagrant injustice, if productions of the kind had 
any serious claims to the attention of science. On another 
hand, no historian has yet undertaken to present a full view 
of Deza's influence and action during those two obscure 
periods of the life of Columbus — that which preceded and that 
which followed the discovery of America.* 

It is therefore our design clearly and precisely to point out 
the role of the celebrated Dominican as protector of Columbus 
to show the characteristic traits of his patronage, and to offer 
some critical observations touching certain presumed protectors 
whose titles are open to the charge of suspicious appearance. 

As we have already intimated, the chief and fundamental 
authority upon which the historic rights of Deza rest is in 
every way incontestable. It is no other than the written 
testimony of Christopher Columbus himself. In that penury 
of contemporary documents capable of precisely determining 
the numerous points of the history of the discoverer of the 
New World, it is evident how valuable are the positive data, 
such as those furnished by the Admiral's own letters and 
writings. This remark is of yet further range, if it is taken 
into account that the Admiral of the Indies, in the report 
of one of his voyages, does not permit himself to recognize 
more than two protectors, who, he says, are both monks. 
Finally, even after the critical labors of M. Harrisse on the 
histories of Christopher Columbus, attributed to the Admiral's 
son, Ferdinand, it yet remains the historian's charge to revise 
numerous affirmations introduced by that forger's work; above 
all, when one sees the lamentable influence wrought by his 
statement of the case upon even the writers who, like Las 
Casas, are held to be the fathers of the New World's history. 

Everybody knows the dragging difficulties and the rebuffs 
that Columbus met with, when, towards the year 1485, he 
presented his schemes of discovery and the offer of his ser- 
vices to their Catholic majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella. A 
detailed history of the Genoese navigator's struggles against 

* Readers of the Rosary Magazine^ June and July, i8q2, undoubtedly appre- 
ciated the excellent articles on Columbus and Deza by r.lr. John A. Mooney, LL.D., 
the scholarly and learned American writer, of whose services in the cause of 
Columbus we take pleasure in recording our grateful recognition. 



ill fortune during some six years is difficult, or rather say 
impossible, securely to be drawn up in the face of the con- 
tradictory data which history, in its actual state, offers to the 
historian. 

Happily, Deza's role is well characterized and independent 
of all collateral questions. 

No sooner does Christopher Columbus set foot on the 
territory of the sovereigns of Castille, than he finds a friend 
who meets him with favor and upholds him. It is the pro- 
tector of the first day. Columbus assures us it is so. On 
his return from his fourth voyage he writes to his son, Diego, 
and recommends him to rely upon Deza (who had become 
Bishop of Palencia) to look after his affairs at Court. As if 
to show what kind of reception and what assistance the son 
of the Admiral of the Indies would receive at his hands, 
Columbus adds : " The Lord Bishop of Palencia, ever since I 
came to Castille, has always favored me and desired my 
honor" — "El Sr. Obispo de Palencia, siempre desde que yo 
vine d Castilla, me ha favorecido y deseado mi honra."* 

It was twenty years since Columbus had first come into 
Castille, and it will readily be understood how much that 
word siempre means, written, as it was, only a few months 
before the illustrious navigator's death. It is a warranted 
assurance of Deza's most constant fidelity, vouchsafed him by 
the Admiral for his faithful patronage and protection. 

Just where and when did Columbus and Deza first meet ? 
It is probable that history will never know. We should like 
to have seen those two together, face to face — the poor 
Genoese genius, who was animated by a great and grand idea, 
and the first professor of Salamanca ; to hear them discuss 
those ideas which were soon to revolutionize the whole world. 
Deza, issued from a noble family of Toro, had entered the 
Dominican order young. He had studied at Salamanca, and 
at the time of his meeting Columbus had just quitted the 
first chair of the university. The merits and reputation of 
the celebrated master had, at the time, won for him the 
confidence of the Catholic sovereigns, and he was appointed 

* M. Fernandez de Navarrete, Coleccion de los viajes y descubrimientos que 
hicieron por mar los £spaAoles, Madrid, 1825, t. i. p. 334. 



preceptor to the heir of the throne, the young Infante Don 
Juan.* 

Did the relations between Columbus and Deza precede the 
latter's elevation to the office of the royal preceptorship, when 
he was as yet only the titular of the first chair at Sala- 
manca ? We are inclined to believe so, however difficult it 
may be to determine it vigorously. Deza was nominated 
preceptor towards 1486,! perhaps later, but not sooner, for 
the Infante was but eight years of age at the time. On 
another hand, there is some uncertainty as to the precise time 
of Columbus' arrival in Spain. According to M. Harrisse, 
he came directly from Portugal, between the fall of 1484 and 
the month of January, 1486,:]: but the common tendency is to 
assign a date somewhat later than this last. The presumptions, 
then, go to put the arrival of Columbus later and the nomi- 
nation of Deza earlier, so that, in all probability, they met 
before Deza had finished his professorial career, since he had 
always favored Columbus and desired his honor ever since 
the latter's coming into Castille.g 

Whatever may have been Deza's position when he first met 
Columbus, whether it was at the University of Salamanca or 
at the Court of the Sovereigns of Spain, the reception the 
Dominican friar extended to the Genoese mariner remains an 
indisputable fact. Fellowship of ideas had already been estab- 
lished between them regarding the existence of the antipodes 
and the possibility of reaching the Indies by navigation towards 

* On Deza, see Echard, Scriptcres O. P., Paris, 1721, t. i. p. 51 ; also A. 
Touron, Histoire des Hommes lUustres de Vordre de St. Dominique, Paris, 1746, 
t. iii. pp. 722-742 ; and an excellent biographical notice by Hundhausen in the 
Kirchenlexicon, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1884, t. iii. pp. 1657-1660. 

t Echard, loc. cit. p. 51. 

X Christophe Colomb, son origine, sa vie, ses voyages, sa fatnille et ses descend- 
ants, Paris, 1884, 2 vols., t. i. p. 354. 

§ M. Harrisse, led into error by Echard, thought that Deza was nominated 
to the Bishopric of Zamora at the same time as to the preceptorship of the 
Prince Don Juan, and he wrote : " Ce savant ecclesiastique (Deza) ne connut 
pas Colomb lorsqu'il ne fut que simple fraile" (loc. cit. i. 371). Just the contrary 
is true. Deza was nominated Bishop of Zamora, April 14, 1494. The Bulls may 
be found in the Bultariutn Ord. Pmd., t. iv. p. 197. Hence it follows that 
before the discovery of America, Columbus knew Deza only as a simple fraile. 



the West. At the end of the fifteenth century Deza was one of 
the most authoritative masters of the Dominican school, with 
Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas, the master minds 
of the order, and the theories upon which Columbus based 
his projects had already come to be taught and generally 
accepted throughout the order's schools.* It is, moreover, the 
disposition of great minds and great souls readily to under- 
stand each other, and that by reason of their common great- 
ness. 

Contemporary with the first relations of Columbus and 
Diego de Deza is the celebrated Junta of Salamanca. It is 
a Dominican writer who gives us the most circumstantial 
account of the conferences which Columbus had with the 
savants of this university. We quote the testimony itself 
of Antonio de R6mesal, O.P., in his History of the Domin- 
ican Province of St. Vincent de Chiapa and Guatemala : 
' ' When God had put into the heart of Columbus the de- 
sign of passing into that part of the world which up to 
that time had remained unknown, he did not find welcome 
before certain kings, and he was treated as a chimerical 
man of little judgment. To win over the sovereigns of 
Castille, Ferdinand and Isabella, to his project, he came to 
Salamanca for the purpose of presenting his reasons to the 
masters in astrology and cosmography, who taught those 
matters at the university. He began by proposing his 
theories and arguments to them, but he found no attention 
or support except among the religious of St. Stephen's. 
The reason of this was that, at that time, not only the 
arts and theology were taught in that convent, but also all 
the other matters that were professed in the schools. It 
was at the convent that the reunions of the astrologers and 
mathematicians took place. Columbus proposed his conclu- 
sions and defended them. Thanks to the assistance of the 
religious, he won the first savants of the school over to his 

* It may interest some readers to note the following places wherein St. Thomas 
speaks of the demonstration of the earth's sphericity : Sttmma^ la. p., Q. i, A. i, 
ad zm. ; 1-2 p., Q. 54, A. 2, ad 2m.; 2 Sent.., d. 24, Q. 2, Art. 2, ad 5m.; Phy. 2, 
Lect. 3, in fine; Poster., Lect. 41, in fine. We cite these as being perhaps the 
most readily at hand. 

61 



opinions. Among all, it was Friar Diego de Deza, Professor 
of the first chair and Master of the Prince Don Juan, who 
took it upon himself to accredit him and to favor him 
before the Catholic sovereigns. All the time that Columbus 
lived at Salamanca the convent gave him shelter and lodg- 
ing and paid the expenses of his travels. Master Diego 
de Deza did the same at the Court. Moreover, on account 
of the largesses of this latter, and of the measures he took 
with the sovereigns to inspire them with faith in Columbus 
and to get them to come to his aid, he was regarded as 
the instrument of the discovery of the Indies. The Bishop 
of Chiapa, Don Bartholomew de Las Casas, relates all 
this at length in his 'General History of the Indies' (book 
I, middle of chap, xxix.)." * 

The reference of Rem^sal to the History of Las Casas 
relates to the protection of Deza and not to the holding 
of the Junta at Salamanca, which was unknown to this 
historian, f 

M. Harrisse, rendered distrustful in consequence of the 
grave errors introduced into the biographies of Columbus 
from the pseudo-histories ascribed to Don Fernando, has 
given a severely critical sifting to a great part of the data 
of the Columbian records. As may easily be conceived, the 
Salamanca Junta was not spared and had to present its 
titles. 

What strikes M. Harrisse is the lateness of Remesal's ac- 
count, "posterior to the events by at least one hundred and 
twenty years." On another hand, he knows no one before 
him "who spoke either about the Junta at Salamanca or 
about the monks of St. Stephen's." | 

The objection is formal and demands an examination. 
For the fact that early historians of America, like Oviedo 
and Las Casas, or the author of a local history like Gil 
Gonzales Davila, make no mention of a commission at 

* Historia de la Provincia de San Vincente de Chiapa y Guatemala, de la Orden 
de San Domingo, Madrid, 1619, col. 52. 

t Bartolomd de Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, Madrid, 1875-1876, 5 vols, 
t. i. p. 228. 

X Christophe Colotnb, etc., t. i. p. 358 and following. 

62 



Salamanca, we see no other plausible reason than that the 
Junta and Columbus' residence at Salamanca created little 
or no stir outside of that city. The event of the first 
hour was forgotten with the rise of the events otherwise 
grave and manifold, which came surging to notice with the 
discovery of the New World. One can understand that it 
was kept in remembrance in a great agglomeration such as 
was St. Stephen's, let alone other places, at least suffi- 
ciently to find one historian. As for Las Casas in particular, 
although he studied at Salamanca, yet it was after the 
holding of the commissions, and the young jurist, who had 
then no connection with the Order, may easily have been 
in ignorance of the conferences held by some savants ten 
years earlier.* Whatever may be the causes of his silence, 
the objection still remains ; but since it is a purely nega- 
tive argument which M. Harrisse proposes, it remains to be 
seen if there are no positive data to invalidate it. 

That after the arrival of Columbus in Castille there was 
a meeting of scientific celebrities to examine the schemes 
of the Genoese mariner is a fact absolutely certain. M. 
Harrisse admits it and proves it by appeal to the deposi- 
tion of Doctor Rodriguez de Maldonado, an eye-witness, 
present at the assembly. "In company," says he, "with 
him who was then Prior of Prado, and who subsequent!}^ 
became Archbishop of Granada, as well as with other 
savants, men of letters and mariners, we conferred 
with the Admiral on his project of going to the Isles ; and 
we all fell in accord that it was impossible that what he 
said was true. Notwithstanding the opinion of the majority, 
the Admiral obstinately persisted in his project of under- 
taking the voyage. It is as one of the council of their 
Highnesses that I know all these things."f The Prior of 
Prado, of whom mention is here made, is Hernando de 
Talavera, a Jeronjrmite religious, who rose to high positions, 
and who, at the time of the commission, was simply Prior of 

* Echard, ScriJ>tores O. P., t. ii. p. iq2. 

t Navarrete, Coleccion, t. iii. p. 589. It is not quite exact to translate, 
with M. Harrisse, ''^ con los -nids de ellos'" by "the majority." It should 
be rendered, " the chief, the most learned of the commission." 

63 



the Convent of Notre Dame of Prado, near Valladolid.* M. 
Harrisse, following Navarrete,f takes the positive fact that 
Talavera was Prior of Prado at the time of the commission 
to prove that " it was between 14S6 and 1487, before the month 
of August of this latter year, that these commissions were held. 
For, after that date, Hernando de Talavera, having become 
bishop, must have left off bearing the title of Prior of Prado4 
The continuation of Maldonado's deposition could have 
furnished M. Harrisse a second argument to prove that the 
junta took place not only before the month of August, 
1487, but even before May 5th of the same year ; for the 
witness adds that it was subsequent to this commission that 
their Highnesses caused certain sums of money to be paid 
to Columbus. But the first grant of the Catholic sov- 
ereigns was on May 5, 1487. § Hence it is before this date 
and not much earlier — for the grant was a result of the 
holding of the commission — that we must put the first public 
discussion. So far, then, the fundamental fact of the existence 
of a junta, as affirmed by Reraesal, is settled beyond dispute. 
As to the character of the commission, Remesal tells us 
that it was made up of astronomers, cosmographers, and 
mathematicians. Maldouado, on his part, fully confirms this. 
According to him, the commission was formed by savants, 
men of letters, and mariners. We do not therefore believe, 
we must say, with M. Harrisse, that "men of the Court 



* Josd de Siguenza, Tercera parte de la Historia de la Ordeji de San 
GeronimOy Madrid, 1605, t. iii. p. 387. 

t Coleccion, t. iii. p. 416 and following. 

X Christophe ColomL\ t. i. p. 361. Even when he would have continued 
to bear the title, he was certainly no longer prior. But Maldonado says 
that, at the time of the commission, he was actually prior, which is suffi- 
cient for the force of the demonstration. 

§"E contra el parecer de los mis de ellos porfio el dicho Almirante de ir 
el dicho viaje, e SS. AA. lo mandaron librar cierta cantidad de maravedis 
para ello, i. asentaron ciertas capitulaciones con el ; lo qual todo supo este 
testigo como uno de los del consejo de SS. AA." — Navarrete, Coleccion^ t. 
iii. p. 589. 

" En dicho dia (5 de Mayo de 1487) di i. Cristobal Colomo, e.xtrangero, 
tres mil maravedis que estd aqui faciendo algunas cosas complideras al ser- 
vicio de sus Altezas." — Navarrete, Coleccion, t. ii. p. 4. 

64 



were consulted, and that a contradictory debate took place 
between them and Columbus." * 

True, Maldonado assisted at the meetmg as a mem- 
ber of the royal council, and perhaps others with him; but 
he also tells us that the commission was composed of sa- 
vants, of men of letters, and of mariners, which puts us in 
the presence of an assemblage of clever men rather than 
of courtiers, and the assistance at the commission of a 
simple convent-prior like Talavera shows that it was 
sought to form a commission of examination, composed of 
men competent to study and expedite the affair. 

But the consultors thus convened were most likely assem- 
bled at the same place where a reunion of learned men had 
already taken place, and it is known that the University of 
Salamanca was at that time the intellectual centre of the 
peninsula. We likewise see the Catholic sovereigns, several 
years later, applying to this university, making an appeal 
to its astronomers and cosmographers to resolve certain 
questions of navigation.! 

The single fact, moreover, of the presence of the Prior of 
Prado excludes the probability that the junta was held in 
the south of Spain, for it is not very likely that a religious 
of the neighborhood of Valladolid would have been sum- 
moned to a council held at Seville, or, indeed, even at 
Toledo. 

But what does away with all doubt is the presence of 
the Court itself at Salamanca during the winter of 1486-1487. 
'^ L' Itmerarw de Galindez de Carbajal," writes M. 
Harrisse,:]: proves that the Catholic sovereigns ended 
the year i486 and began that of 1487 at Salamanca. § 

* Christophe Colo7nb, t. i. p. 359. 

t"Nos habemos menester alg^nas personas que supiesen i tuviesen ex- 
periencia de astrolog^a 6 cosmografia para que platicasen con otros que aqui 
estan sobre algunas cosas de la mar," etc.— Navarrete, Coleccion, t. iii. 
p. 489. 

X Christophe Colomb, t. i. p. 362. 

§ Memorial 6 Registro breve de los lugares donde el Rey y Reyna Caiolicos, estu- 
vieron cada ana desde el MDCLXVIII. MS. of the National Library at 
Paris, No. 6964 — Collection Legrand, fol. 121, and printed in the collection 
Ribadeneyra, t. Ixx. 

65 



On another hand, since, after May 5th, Columbus received 
a grant in consequence of the holding of the junta, and 
since, according to the testimony of the witness Maldonado, 
he treated with the sovereigns, the reunion cannot have taken 
place except at Salamanca, where Maldonado himself must 
have been in attendance at the Court as member of the council.* 
In this way we see that various data, different indeed, but 
very positive, confirm the testimony of Remesal and guar- 
antee its worth. M. Harrisse himself concludes that the 
first conference, that of the winter of 1486-1487, "was very 
probably held at Salamanca, after the return of the Court." f 
We do not believe that we go beyond the lines of prudent 
and legitimate criticism when we conclude, from the discus- 
sion just given, that the fact is morally certain. 

We may add, and it is but just to do so, that the histor- 
ical authority of Remesal is itself of no inconsiderable weight. 
A precise, well-informed historian, having made many 
researches in the American archives, he is not at all given 
to legend or fiction. Sir Arthur Helps, who, in his American 
researches, often found that Remesal had already gone over 
the same ground, was pleased to pay him a high encomium, 
besides turning his words to good account. "I do not feel 
at all disposed," he says, "to throw over the authority of 
Remesal. He had access to the archives of Guatemala early 
in the seventeenth century, and he is one of those excellent 
writers, so dear to the student of history, who is not prone 
to declamation or rhetoric or picturesque writing, but 
indulges us largely by the introduction everywhere of most 
important historical documents copied boldly into the text."$ 

A final doubt raised by the recital of Remesal relates to 
the presence of Deza at the Salamanca Commission. We 
know of no authority other than that of this author directly 
confirming this fact. But although there is no record to 
assure us of it, still the conjuncture of circumstances and of 

* Maldonado belonged to Salamanca and was rigidor of the city. — Navar- 
rete, Coleccion, t. iii. p. 614. 

t Ckristophe Colomb, t. i. p. 363. 

X " The Life 0/ Las Casas," London, 1883, 4th ed., p. 185. 

66 



events establishes it with the greatest likelihood. Given the 
presence of the Court at Salamanca, and the assembly of an 
official commission during the winter of 14S6-1487, it can 
scarcely be doubted that Deza took part therein. He was 
in Salamanca just at the time, either as professor of the 
university or as preceptor of the Infante Don Juan. Remesal 
says both, for it is the very time when he passed from the 
chair of theology to the preceptorial charge of the young 
prince. Knowing his friendship for Columbus and considering 
his scientific authority as first in rank on the professorial 
staff, we doubt not that he participated in the discussions, 
which had long since been in preparation. 

It is quite inconceivable that he who was simply Prior of 
Prado, and a former professor of Salamanca, should have 
been invited, and that the master who held the first position 
of the university, and who enjoyed the highest confidence of 
the Court, should not have taken part in the conferences 
which concerned a man and an idea both alike dear to him. 
If Diego de Deza remained a stranger to that most important 
act, the only important one, indeed, of the first years of the 
sojourn of Columbus in Spain, we fail to see where, when, 
or how he could have acquired those so formal titles of 
patronage which Columbus conferred upon him by saying that 
he (Deza) had always favored him and desired his glory ever 
since his first coming into Castille. In further confirmation 
of these inductions is what may be called the latest interpo- 
sition of Deza, by obtainment of pecuniary aid furnished to 
Columbus subsequently to the Salamanca conferences. We 
know that the consultors in general had rejected the theories 
of the tenacious navigator. The Court, which had convoked 
the junta to arrive at a motived determination, could not 
have dreamt of binding itself to the interests of Columbus. 
Nevertheless, from that time on we find the latter's name 
entering upon the royal account books, and it is important 
to know the intermediary agent of those favors. 

The learned Navarrete, whose critical works form the solid 
bases of the history of Columbus and of early American 
history, believed that Diego de Deza was the direct inter- 
mediary by whose order the first sums were drawn from the 

67 



royal treasury by Christopher Columbus.* The importance of 
Deza's patronage, above all after the last voyage of the 
Admiral of the Indies, when Deza was really Bishop of 
Palencia, seems to have led Navarrete into error. This writer, 
moreover, did not know the date of the elevation of the 
Infante's preceptor to the episcopal dignity. It is henceforth 
certain that in 1487 Deza was neither Bishop of Palencia 
nor even simply a bishop. His elevation to the episcopate, 
with the title of Bishop of Zamora, was on the 17th of April, 
1494. f It is, therefore, not he who gave the official order to 
pay Columbus several important sums during the years 1487 
and 1488. 

But who was then Bishop of Palencia ? It was a colleague 
and friend of Deza, Alonzo de Burgos. :J: 

A simple Dominican religious, his merits had gained him 
promotion to the highest dignities from the beginning of the 
reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. At the time with which we 
have to do, he was one of those high ecclesiastical personages 
whom we see the Catholic sovereigns constantly gathering 
around themselves for the government of their states and for 
the direction of their conscience. § 

The predilection of Ferdinand and Isabella for the Domini- 
cans was most marked. At the time of the Salamanca 
Commission Alonzo de Burgos was Grand Chaplain and Presi- 
dent of the Council of Castille. Thomas de Torquemada held 
in his hands all the powers of the Inquisition, and Diego de 
Deza superintended the education of the young prince, in 

* Coleccion, t. ii. p. 92. 

+ Ripoll, Bull. Ord. Prad., t. iv. p. 197. 

X Gams, Series Episcoporutn Ecclesiie Catholicce^ Ratisbonne, 1873, p. 63, 
assigns the year i486 for Burgos' nomination ; Touron, loc. cii., t. iii. p. 694, 
assigns the year 1484. 

§For an account of Alonzo de Burgos, consult Touron, Hisi. dcs Homines 
Illustres, etc., t. iii. pp. 693-697. It was he who conceived the happy idea of 
founding a school of higher studies for the Dominican professors — the College 
of St. Gregory, at Valladolid. He thereby laid the foundation of the doctrinal 
supremacy of the order in Spain during the sixteenth century. That college 
sent out such men as Victoria, Melchior Cano, the two Sotos, Caranza, Banez, 
Medina, Granada, and others. Deza founded a like college at Seville, under the 
patronage of St. Thomas. 

68 



whom were centred the hopes of all the people. In their 
affection for the Dominicans, the sovereigns went so far as 
to occupy their Convent of St. Thomas, at Avila, making it their 
favorite residence. It is there that reposes to this day, a 
pledge of their friendship, the young prince whom Deza had 
initiated into knowledge and virtue, not far from another 
tomb, abandoned by a strange irony of time and of revolu- 
tions to tranquillity without parallel, where nevertheless there 
rests a man who raised such great storms of implacable 
anger — Thomas de Torquemada, O. P. 

It was not, then, a meaningless protection, the Dominican pro- 
tection at the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella. In that hour, 
when Columbus had need of it, it came to him incontestably 
through Diego de Deza. The Salamanca Commission had 
universally rebuffed the projects of Columbus, but it was by 
private interposition with the sovereigns that the preceptor 
of the Infante saved the hopes of the future discoverer of the 
Indies from their first shipwreck. 

Alonzo de Burgos, as President of the Council, carried 
the orders of their Majesties into execution and delivered 
the official certificates of the royal grants to Columbus. In 
the account books of the royal treasurer, Francisco Gonzales 
of Seville, we find entries of various sums paid by the 
order, or by the schedule, of the Bishop of Palencia. 
When their Highnesses are present, the order is given by 
them, and the Bishop makes out the schedule, or bill, 
which is presented to the treasury. In the absence of the 
sovereigns, the Bishop of Palencia, President of the council, 
gives the order, and another member draws up, or at least 
signs, the schedule. 

Thus: "On May 5, 1487, by order of the Bishop of Pa- 
lencia, the treasurer pays 3,000 tnaravedis to Christopher 
Columbus, a stranger, who is working at certain things in 
the service of their Highnesses." 

" On August 27, of the same year, payment of 4,000 
maravedis, by order of their Highnesses and by schedule 
of the Bishop." 

"On July 3, Columbus receives 3,000 maravedis towards 
expenses of removal." 



"On October isth, by order of their Highnesses and by 
schedule of the Bishop, again 4,000 wzarav^^/i'."* 

From his first arrival in Spain, therefore, the hands of 
two Dominicans were proffered to Columbus. These Domi- 
nicans were Diego de Deza and Alonzo de Burgos, but 
they were both moved by one heart, by that of Deza, the 
staunch protector of Columbus, whom the royal books in 
that hour of trial call a stranger the first time they record 
his name. 

Finally, to bring the question of the Salamanca Junta to 
a close, we shall take up a statement of the learned M. 
Harrisse. We are by no means inclined to believe with him 
that the conference, of which we have spoken, was "di- 
rected by Talavera." f Not only is there nothing to prove 
such a role on the part of Talavera, but the circumstances 
themselves render it improbable. Maldonado, indeed, assures 
us that, in company with the Prior of Prado, he assisted at 
the junta; but he does not at all point out what part was 
there taken by Talavera; and if Maldonado mentions this 
personage alone, it is by reason of his relations with him 
and on account of the high dignities to which he subse- 
quently attained. On another hand, there is a strong un- 
likelihood that a simple religious, coming into the midst of a 
body of savants, many of whom preceded him in rank by their 
scientific titles, or by their official dignity, would be called 
to take the direction of the commission. If any function of 
this nature is to be attributed to Talavera, it ought to be 

* " En dicho dia (5 Mayo de 1487) di i Cristobal Colomo, extrangero, tres 
mil Maravedis, que esta aqui faciendo alg^nas cosas complideras al servicio 
de Sus Altezas, por c^dula de Alonza de Quintanilla, con mandamiento del 
Obispo (de Palencia)." 

"En 27 de dicho mes (Agosto de 1487) di d Crist6bal Colomo quatro mil 
Maravedis para ir al Real por mandado de Sus Altezas por cddula del 
Obispo." 

" Son siete mil Maravedis con tres mil que se le mandaron dar para ayuda 
de su costa por otra partida de 3 de Julio." 

"En dicho dia (15 de Octubre de 1487) di a Cristobal Colomo cuatro mil 
Maravedis que Sus Altezas le mandaron dar para ayuda d su corta por c^dula 
del Obispo." — Navarrete, Coleccion, t. ii. p. 4. 

t Christophe Colotnb, t. i. p. 363. 



at the commission of the end of 1491, for the Histories of 
Ferdinand Columbus then positively assign such a role to 
him.* 

But it is known with what mistrust the data of this work 
should be accepted, and we shall show farther on that, in 
regard to the rSles of the pretended protectors of Columbus, 
it has no more authority than on many other points wherein 
it is fairly crammed with gross and impudent errors. If Deza 
assisted at the Salamanca conferences — and everything in- 
duces us to believe that he did — he must have been found 
there in the first rank. The junta was an assembly of 
savants, and it was as one of them that he must have taken 
part in their deliberations. But he was also preceptor of 
the Infante, and he had occupied the first chair of the uni- 
versity ; it is therefore readily conceivable that, in these de- 
bates, with his twofold title, he must have had the prece- 
dence, at once, of honor and of scientific attainment. 

It may appear fastidious to our readers to behold us thus 
laboriously threading a path hedged in with many difficulties, 
with the sole object of placing beyond doubt a fact which 
writers have long since accepted without hesitation, which 
the arts have popularized, and which legend has largely ex- 
ploited. But historical criticism nowadays makes urgent de- 
mands, which must be taken into consideration. Far from 
complaining of its severity and mistrust, we laud its char- 
acter ; for there, whither its jealous sceptre has passed, 
history has been raised up, renewed and more beautiful, 
upon a pedestal henceforth indestructible and alone worthy of 
the truth. The vulgar will always abandon rigorous history 

* " Le altezze loro la commisero al Prior di Prado, che poi fu Archi- 
vescovo di Granata," etc. — Historie del Fernando Colombo, etc., Venetia, 1571. 
p. f. 32, verso. In this passage the writer of the Histories had the deposi- 
tion of Maldonado under his eyes, but, since it bears no express date, he 
absurdly put the fact down as having taken place in 1491, not suspecting 
that Talavera was then no longer Prior of Prado and that he had already 
become Archbishop of Granada. He has materially preserved Maldonado's 
formula, true of the junta of 1486-1487, but erroneous of 1491. As to the 
chief role attributed to Talavera, the Histories have simply imagined it, 
arbitrarily glossing the data of Maldonado under that necessity of amplifica- 
tion which they exhibit throughout. 



for the amplifications of romance and of legend ; but the think- 
ing man will find more joy and honor in holding the 
golden, labor-conquered grain of truth in the palm of his 
hand than in the possession of puerile or imaginary treas- 
ures. 

Be it now permitted us rapidly to sketch the general aspect of 
what we believe the Salamanca Junta to have been, sepa- 
rating the great lines of this event from the fundamental 
criticisms established in the preceding pages. 

When Christopher Columbus came to the Court of Castille 
with the offer of his services, promising the discovery, not 
of a New World, but of a shorter route to the Indies, the 
Catholic sovereigns must have been moved by the solicitations 
of a twofold impulse : one of distrust of an adventurer, 
and of a project perhaps a mere chimera ; another of de- 
sire and of hope for the advantages which the recent dis- 
coveries of the Portuguese and the progress of navigation 
had made possible. It was of the wisdom of the Sovereigns 
of Castille and Leon not likely to embark in an enterprise 
of this nature. They must needs reflect, and, above all, con- 
sult. In the impossibility of rapidly treating about the 
affair, by reason of the grave undertakings which Ferdinand 
and Isabella then had on their hands, and also by reason 
of the lack of competent men among their immediate re- 
tainers, Columbus was given the hope and the prospect of a 
serious examination of his schemes as soon as circumstances 
would make it possible. From the year i486 there must 
have been under consideration a plan for the consultation of 
savants and specialists, and that, to all appearances, at Sal- 
amanca, where the most competent and skillful in the mat- 
ter seemed already assembled. When the project took 
shape, Columbus came to the front, and, with that resolu- 
tion and tenacity of purpose which were at the bottom of 
his character, he prepared the way for an official examina- 
tion of his ideas. The capital importance which such a 
measure must have been to him would not permit him to 
leave anything to chance. 

At Salamanca he found Diego de Deza, a professor the 
most in evidence at the university. The ideas of Deza, 



which were not other than those of his school, touching the 
problems raised by Columbus, at once put him in accord 
with a man who felt in himself the energy of practically 
demonstrating the truth of theories hitherto confined to the 
halls of academies and schools. Pending the arrival of the 
Catholic sovereigns and awaiting their appointment of his 
judges, Columbus, through Deza, entered into friendly rela- 
tions with the Dominicans of St. Stephen's, the most im- 
portant and most lettered convent of the city. Deza's ideas, 
which were also those of the learned monks of this house, 
assured Columbus a friendly reception. He was lodged, fed, 
entertained, as Remesal says, by the monks of St. Stephen's. 
To this day, in the environs of the city, there is pointed 
out a sort of villa to which tradition has attached the name 
of Columbus, and which is regarded as having been placed 
at the disposition of the Genoese mariner by the convent of 
Dominicans, of which it was a dependency. In Deza and 
in his colleagues Columbus found convinced and devoted 
auxiliaries. Many a time, awaiting the official examination 
projected by the Cotirt, the solicitor must have discussed 
with the religious of St, Stephen's the theories and the 
visions that beset his mind ; and so it was that, provided 
with the double hospitality of body and of ideas, the cou- 
rageous stranger awaited the coming of the sovereigns. 

The winter of 1486-87 witnessed the sequel to their design 
of forming a scientific commission to examine Columbus' 
schemes of discovery. The chief consultors would naturally 
be taken from the personnel of the university. With these 
were associated various scientific notabilities, such as they 
were to be had in those days, and in this way it was that 
Hernando de Talavera was summoned from his convent. To 
the men of letters were also joined certain specialists or sea- 
faring men, as well as some delegates of the Royal Council, 
like Maldonado, whose deposition has rendered us such impor- 
tant service in this discussion. 

Several sessions must have been devoted to the schemes of 
the discovery of the Indies as they were proposed by Colum- 
bus. The debates, for the most part, assuredly turned on the 
discussion of the scientific authorities of the school, and of 

73 



the practical difficulties of putting them into execution. At 
the time a double trend of ideas unequally divided the minds 
of Spain. One, scientific, handed down from Aristotle, and 
deeply imbedded in the classical teaching of the Dominican 
school by the labors of Albert the Great and of St. Thomas 
Aquinas ; another from St. Augustine and Lactantius, aug- 
mented by the adherence of Nicholas de Lyra, denying the 
existence of the antipodes, and defending its position with 
arguments drawn from scriptural texts, superficially under- 
stood, and with the current popular and unscientific objections. 
Unfortunately, these last views had a strong hold on the 
greater part of the minds of the entire peninsula. The 
episcopacy, as an eye-witness of the junta of 1491, where 
the same discussions were renewed, will inform us, united in 
an almost solid opposition against the cosmographical ideas 
of Aristotle, and the testimony of Maldonado further assures 
us that the universality of the consulters of the Salamanca 
conferences repudiated the views of Columbus. The inspired 
navigator, along with the most learned of the company, vainly 
argued down their objections, and finally he was almost alone 
to persevere in his ideas and in his resolutions. 

These memorable conferences were held at St. Stephen's 
Convent, the then intellectual centre of Salamanca, and the 
hall where Columbus so boldly defended the inspirations of 
his genius is shown even to this day. This first commission 
brought nothing to light. Its savants, for a time, yet closed 
the gates of the New World to their discoverer. 

The conferences of 1487 having resulted in a pure negation 
of the practicability of the schemes proposed, logic required 
the sovereigns of Spain to give Columbus conge ; but it was 
not so. There was a private influence somehow exercised on 
Ferdinand and Isabella, and Columbus was enabled to follow 
up his plans, aided and sustained by royal grants. No doubt 
that Deza was the agent of these benefactions. Living at 
the Court, in consequence of his office of preceptor of the 
Infante, he found, over and above his personal credit with 
the princes, the support of his colleague and friend, Alonzo 
de Burgos, President of the Royal Council and chief mover 
of the administrative resolutions. In the danger that threat- 



ened Columbus at that moment, he himself assures us that 
it was Deza who saved all and preserved America for Spain. 
There is no doubt that Deza from the first assumed the 
attitude which we have ascribed to him, and persevered in 
it to the end. This is apparent from the very words of the 
Admiral, affirming that Deza had always favored him and 
desired his honor ever since his arrival in Spain — words 
amply commented by the authority of Remesal and by the 
conjuncture of events during the years i486 and 1487. 

The six years, or thereabouts, spent by Columbus in effecting 
the acceptance of his projects by the Court of Castille, em- 
brace the period between two juntas, or scientific conferences — 
that of Salamanca, of which we have already spoken, and 
that of Granada, or, to give its new name to that city, 
which had passed from the hands of the Moors into those of 
Ferdinand and Isabella, Santa Fe. Neither of these commis- 
sions favored Columbus. Of the latter we should have nothing 
or almost nothing to say, if, after its sessions and negative 
results, we did not once more find Diego de Deza saving 
the projects of Columbus from final wreck, and if it were 
not here necessary to undertake a task of historical justice. 

It was toward the latter part of the year 1491, that Columbus 
casually stopped at the Franciscan Monastery of La Rabida,* 
and there received hospitality from the Guardian, Father Antonio 
de Marchena, who encouraged him in his designs. The personal 
mediation of this religious with Isabella, and his journey to the 
Court in company with Columbus, resulted in the formation of a 
new scientific tribunal, with a view to a final examination of the 
propositions of the tenacious navigator. The existence of these 
conferences of Santa Fe is placed beyond doubt, and that inde- 
pendently of the empoisoned source of the Histories.\ 

According to Las Casas, the sequel of these conferences 
was precisely the same as that of the Salamanca commis- 
sion. Columbus was not at all understood there. Las Casas 
relates the story in terms of rare energy : ' ' Again they 

* " En se rendant i Huelva il s'arrete fortuitement au Monastere de La Rabida, 
en Octobre ou Novembre, 1491." — Harrisse, Christophe Colomb, i. p. 357. 

t " L'autre (conference) se tint i Santa Fd, pendant les derniferes mois de 1491." — 
Harrisse, loc. cit., i. p. 363. The report of an eye-witness, Geraldini, is cited later. 

75 



busied themselves to the utmost. A great number of per- 
sons were assembled together. Philosophers were consulted, 
and astrologers and cosmographers (if there were then any in 
Castille deserving the name), and mariners and pilots. All, 
as with one voice, declared that the schemes of Columbus 
were folly and vanity. They ridiculed him and tore him at 
every turn. The Admiral himself bears witness to these 
facts, and narrates them several times in his letters to the 
Sovereigns." * 

Contemning the testimony of the Histories and neglecting 
that of Las Casas, M. Harrisse believes that, from certain 
data, which we shall examine, he can infer that the Granada 
commission was favorable to Columbus, thanks to the power- 
ful protection of Mendoza, ' ' who there played a decisive 
role."f 

We believe either part of the proposition to be absolutely 
untenable. The Commission was not favorable to Columbus, 
nor was Mendoza his protector, at least on the grounds given. 
The historical basis upon which M. Harrisse rests his asser- 
tion is constituted exclusively by the authority of Oviedo, who 
recognizes Mendoza as protector of Columbus, and by the 
testimony of Alessandro Geraldini, who assisted at the meet- 
ing, and confirms the fact of Mendoza' s presence there. 
This process, we believe, is to seek, with data of little 
surety, to solve a problem of which we may have a solu- 
tion from documents very authoritative and otherwise posi- 
tive. 

First, as to the information given by Geraldini, it is of 
absolute value to prove the fact of the Granada commission 
at which he assisted; but beyond that, it does not in any 
way support the assertion that the conference was favorable 
to Columbus; on the contrary, it goes directly to confirm 
the recital of Las Casas. 

*"Hici^rouse de nuevo muchas diligencias, juntaus muchas personas, hu- 
bi^rouse informaciones de filosofos, y astrologos, y cosmlgrafos (si con todo 
entonces habfa algunos perfectos en Castilla), de marineros y pilotos, y 
todos, d una voz decian que era todo locura y vanidao, y d cada paso 
burlaban y escarnecian de ello, segun que el Almirante muchas veces d los 
Reyes en sus cartas, lo refiere y certifica." — Hist, de las Indias, i. p. 243. 

t Christophe Colomb, t. i. p. 363. 

76 



"There was," says Geraldini, "a diversity of opinion in 
the council, because many Spanish bishops regarded the be- 
lief in the existence of the antipodes as heretical, by reason 
of the authority of Nicholas de Lyra and of St. Augustine. 
I, who was behind Diego de Mendoza, perhaps because I 
was young, objected that St. Augustine and Lactantius 
could have been very great theologians, but decidedly poor 
cosmographers." * 

From the testimony of this eye-witness one can easily 
gather that the junta was far from being favorable, since 
the bishops quite generally held that the ideas of Columbus 
were heretical, and since it attributed to a young man's 
presumption the observation which we to-day find a very 
sensible one, but which, in the sages of Granada, perhaps 
stirred up no other sentiment than that of pity. 

As to the part attributed to Mendoza, the words of Ger- 
aldini cannot be taken to establish anything else than the 
presence of the great Cardinal at the conference. 

We have now to consider the authority of Oviedo. "In 
nearly all the histories and chronicles," writes M. Harrisse, 
"where there is question of the discovery of the New 
World and of the tribulations which Columbus suffered, it 
is neither to Deza, nor to Quintanilla, nor to Cabrero that 
the merit of the enterprise is attributed, but to Pedro Gon- 
zalez de Mendoza, grand Cardinal of Spain." f This obser- 
vation made, M. Harrisse himself goes on to reduce it to 
its just value. Closely examining these recitals and these 
histories, "one remains convinced that their only source of 

* " Cum coadunato primariorum consilio variae sententiae essent, eo quod 
multi antistites patriae Hispanse manifestum reum haereseos esse plane as- 
serebant, eo quod Nicolaus a Lyra totam terrse humanae compaginem ab 
Insulis, Fortunatis Orientem usque supra mare extentam nulla latera habere 
per inferiorem partem spherae obtorta dicit. Et Divus Aurelius Augustinus 
nullos esse Antipodas affirmat. Tunc ego qui forte juvenis, retro eram 
Didacum Mendozam, sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem, hominem genera, 
integritatd, prudentia, rerum notitia, et omnibus praeclarae naturae ornamentis 
illustrem petii. Cui cum referrem Nicolaum a Lyra, virum sacrae theologiae 
exponendae egregium fuisse, et Aurelium Augustinum doctrina et sanctitate 
magnum, tamen cosmographia caruisse," eKc.—ltinerariiin:, Romae, 1631, p. 
204 ; Harrisse, /. c, i. p. 380. 

+ Christopke Colomb, i. p. 378. 

77 



information is Oviedo or Gomara." No doubt the text of 
Oviedo is formal. Mendoza recommended Columbus to their 
Catholic Majesties, and through Mendoza and Quintanilla, 
who had presented him to the Cardinal, he was able to 
obtain a hearing from their Highnesses. 

There is nothing to hinder the admission that Mendoza 
presented Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella, and that he 
testified interest in and good-will towards the poor, great, 
misunderstood man. Geraldiui also expressly mentions that 
" on the recommendation of an illustrious man (viz. Men- 
doza) the Sovereigns were moved by the distress of Columbus."* 

But that the assistance and mediation of Mendoza were 
continued through the Santa Fe Conference, above all so far 
as to render it favorable to Columbus, it is impossible to 
admit. There is nothing more natural than that Mendoza, 
by reason of his high position, took part in carrying the 
royal orders into execution, after it was finally resolved to 
attempt to realize the projects of Columbus ; and it was 
just as natural that Oviedo therefore attributed the honor 
of the enterprise to the great Cardinal as to a primary agent, 
who, without having carried on the negotiations, nevertheless 
coupled his name therewith. But that Mendoza entered into 
the views and interests of Columbus so far as to have the 
right of being regarded as the efficacious cause of the dis- 
covery and to reap the honor of having given America to 
Spain is erroneous, and it is Columbus himself who rectifies 
the error. 

We have already seen the formal opinion of Las Casas, 
who asserts that the junta of Granada had treated the pro- 
positions of Columbus with utter contempt, and Las Casas 
appeals to the writings of the unhappy navigator to support 
his assertion. Columbus expressed himself on this question 
very clearly, indeed, and it is he whom we must hear be- 
fore all others. In the beginning of the account of his third 

* " Is Illiberim urbem, quam nostro saculo Granatam vocant, ad Ferdi- 
nandum regem et Elisabetam reginam perexit, qui auctoritate clari hominis 
moti pro Colono misero. Quo intra paucos dies veniente, cum coadunato 
primariorum homininum," etc., as in the note cited above. — Geraldini, Iti- 
nerariiim^ p. 204. 

78 



voyage, Columbus addresses himself to the Sovereigns and 
briefly sums up the aspect and state of that period, during 
which he had fought so hard against all to get his projects 
accepted by the Sovereigns of Spain : 

"Most serene, most high and powerful Princes, the King 
and the Queen, our Seigniors: It is the Holy Trinity who 
formerly moved your Highnesses to the enterprise of the 
Indies. In its iniinite goodness it made me its messenger, 
and it was as its ambassador that I came into your royal 
presence, as to the greatest Christian princes and also as 
to the most devoted to the defense and propagation of the 
faith. The persons who then had knowledge of my projects 
held them as impossible. They did not imagine any other 
means of increasing your riches than the ordinary goods of 
fortune, and they were prepossessed by that idea. In that 
affair I spent six or seven years of hard labor, showing, as 
best I knew, how much it would serve Our Lord to propa- 
gate His Holy Name and His Faith among many peoples, and 
how much that work was worthy of great princes, as much 
by reason of its own excellence as by reason of the high 
fame and imperishable memory which would be connected 
therewith. There was also need of treating the human side 
of the project. I then showed what numerous and credible 
savants had written in their histories ; how they related that 
there were great riches in those countries. It was even my 
duty to report for my purpose the opinion of those who 
had treated of the position of the world. Finally, your High- 
nesses determined to put the project into execution, thereby 
proving the great heart which your Majesties always had 
for great enterprises, because those who had known that 
affair or assisted at the discussion, all, in a body, regarded 
the project as a burlesque, save two friars who were always 
constant."* 

The words of Columbus, as is evident, are most clear 
and most explicit. When he first came to Spain, those per- 
sons who learned about his projects declared them to be 

* Navarrete, Coleccion, i., Beginning of Third Voyage: "Vine con la emba- 
jada d su Real conspectu, movido como d los mas altos Principes de cris- 
tianos . . . las personas que entendieron en ello lo tuvieron por impo- 

79 



impossible: ''Las personas que entendieron en ello lo 
tuvieron por imposibiley That was at the Salamanca Com- 
mission of 1486-1487. Later, after six or seven years of 
painful struggle, the propositions of Columbus were again 
submitted to a board of examination. All who assisted at 
this rehearing and who heard the exposition of his ideas, 
all unanimously held the affair to be a farce: " Todos los 
que habian entetidido en ello y oido esta platica todos d una 
mano lo tenian a burla." It cannot be doubted that Colum- 
bus here refers to the last negotiations and to the Com- 
mission of Granada. The word platica is very applicable 
to that discussion where he gave an exposition of the ideas 
which he described above. Finally, the text formally and 
decisively excludes all concourse and support other than that 
of the two religious who so constantly defended him: '■'■Salvo 
dos frailes que siempre fueron constantes." 

Who, then, are those two men to whom is due the honor 
of having been so resolute in their adherence to Columbus ? 
Navarrete, whose opinion has found general acceptation, 
says they were the preceptor of the Infante Don Juan, 
Diego de Deza, and the Guardian of the convent of La 
Rabida, Antonio de Marchena. M. Harrisse, to whom the 
early history of America is beholden for many new and 
critical views, would exclude Deza from the glory of having 
been one of the two monks. Preoccupied with the task of 
separating the traditional personality of the Guardian of La 
Rabida into two Franciscan monks, viz., Juan Perez and 
Antonio de Marchena, M. Harrisse, the learned author of 
the Vze de Christophe Colo7nb, has endeavored to make the 
text quoted above do service in support of his position. 
If Deza is not one of the two friars referred to by Colum- 
bus, it is likely that they are the two Franciscans at whom 
he points. Whatever there may be in the probable duality de- 

sibile. . . . Puse eu esto seis 6 siete afios de grave pena, demostrando lo 
mejor que yo sabia cuanto servicio se podia hacer d nuestro Seflor en 
esto ... en fin Vuestras Altezas determinaron que esto se pusiese en 
obra. Aqui mostraron el grande corazi6n que siempre hicieron en toda cosa 
grande, porque todos los que habian entendido en ello y oido esta platica 
todos d una mano lo tenian a burla, salvo dos frailes que siempre fueron 
constantes." 

80 



fended by M. Harrisse, his reasoning does not bear him out, for 
he has unwittingly started out on an erroneous line of argument. 

M. Harrisse thinks that Columbus would not have used the 
word fraile to designate Deza after his elevation to the 
dignity of bishop, and Columbus could not have known him 
when he was yet a simple friar. 

" Columbus speaks of two monks who aided him. Antonio de 
Marchena was certainly one of them, but who was the other ? 
All the historians name Diego de Deza. Deza, it is true, 
early took the (monk's) frock, and was all his life affiliated 
to the Order of St. Dominic ; but this learned ecclesiastic 
did not know Columbus when he was only a simple fraile. 
' A monk' — is that the expression the Admiral would have 
used in speaking of a prelate who, after having been a 
professor of theology at the University of Salamanca, and 
preceptor of the heir to the crown, was already Bishop of 
Zamora, when he met him for the first time in 1486-148 7, 
and who, at the time he speaks of him, had already occu- 
pied the important sees of Salamanca, of Jaen, and of Pa- 
lencia, and was titular confessor of the Catholic Sovereigns? 
"We think, on the contrary, that the two monks alluded to 
by Columbus were Fr. Antonio de Marchena and Fr. Juan 
Perez, whom, after the example of Las Casas, we must 
regard as two perfectly distinct personalities."* 

Even if Columbus had not known Deza except after his 
nomination to the episcopal dignity, there is, nevertheless, 
nothing to prove that the word fraile could not be used to 

*"Colonib parle de deux moines qui I'aidferent. Antonio de Marchena ^tait 
I'un certainement ; mais qui fut I'autre ? 

"Tous les historians d^signent Di^go de D^za. D^za prit le froc de bonne 
heure, il est vrai, et resta toute sa vie affili^ i I'ordre de Saint Dominique ; 
mais ce savant eccl^siastique ne connut pas Colomb lorsqu'il ne fut que simple 
fraile. ' Un moine,' est-ce I'expression dont I'amiral se serait servi pour 
parler d'un pr^lat qui, apres avoir ^te professeur de th^ologie i I'Uni- 
versit^ de Salamanque et prdcepteur de I'h^ritier de la couronne, dtait d^ji 
^veque de Zamora quand il le rencontra pour la premifere fois en 1486-1487, 
et qui, i r^poque oil il en parle, avait d^ji pass^ par les importants 
^vech^s de Salamanque, de Jaen, de Palencia, et ^tait le confesseur en litre 
des Rois Catholiques. 

" Nous pensons, au contraire, que le deux moines auxquels Colomb fait 
allusion ^taient le Fr. Antonio de Marchena et le Fr. Juan Perez, dont il 

81 



designate a monk who had become bishop, especially if referred 
to in connection with another simple friar. 

In point of fact, in Spain, about the sixteenth century, 
bishops taken from monastic orders retained their appellation 
of fraile, and to be convinced of it we have but to turn to 
the first pages of the " History of the Indies," by Las Casas, 
where the aged missionary places his titles of fraile and 
bishop side by side: '■'Don Fray Bartdlomd de Las Casas, 
fraile de Santo Domingo, obispo de Chiapa."* 

But, however that may be, M. Harrisse started out on a 
wrong hypothesis. Deza was not bishop when Columbus knew 
him at Salamanca, nor, furthermore, was he bishop at the 
time of the Santa Fe commission. It was two years and a 
half later, on April 14th, 1494, that he was nominated to the 
see of Zamora.f Therefore, before the discovery of America, 
Columbus knew Deza only as a simple religious, that is, as a 
fraile. Diego de Deza, consequently, is, beyond all dispute, 
one of the two sole personages who were favorable to 
Columbus at Santa Fe, and we shall later adduce further 
testimony of the Admiral — testimony otherwise most explicit — 
which will leave room for no doubt whatever. 

As to that which would tend to admit one or several 
other protectors besides the two monks which Columbus 
recognizes, his own authority makes the thing impossible. 

Can it really be conceived that Columbus would have made 
the like assertions to the Catholic Sovereigns with so much 

faut faire, k I'exemple de Las Casas, deux personnalitds parfaitement dis- 
tinctcs. " — Christophe Colomb, i. 371. 

M. Harrisse takes all this information about Deza from Echard, Scriptores, 
O. P., t. ii. p. 51. 

According to the Bullarium Ord. Prced., t. iv., and Gams, Series Episc. 
Eccles. Cath., the following are the sees occupied by Deza: Zamora (Bull. 
April 14, 1494, no date given by Gams) ; Salamanca (Bull. 1497, Gams, 1496) ; 
Jaen (Bull. 1498 circiter ; Gams, 1497); Palcficia (Bull. 1500; Gams, 1500); Seville 
(Bull. 1504 ; Gams, 1505). The letters of nomination arrived on Dec. 21, 1504. 
Deza took possession by proxy early in 1505, and only made his solemn entry 
on Oct. 24 of the same year. (Ortiz de Zufiiga, Anales, lib. xii. et xiii. ); 
Toledo (Bull. 1523 ; Gams, 1523.) He died on June 9, 1523, at the age of eighty 
years. 

* T. i. p. 34. 

t Bull. Ord. Freed., t. iv. p. 197. 

82 



insistence, about facts well known to them, if those assertions 
had not been well founded and notorious ? Can any one 
imagine Christopher Columbus, patronized by the great 
Cardinal of Spain, the third Majesty, as he was then 
popularly called, declaring to the Sovereigns that he had 
received no concourse except from two monks ? Questions 
of the kind scarcely call for consideration. 

After the junta of Santa Fe, all seemed to be hopelessly 
lost ; but, nevertheless, the prospects of the unfortunate 
solicitor were never brighter. 

The guardian of La Rabida had accomplished his mission 
with the conference of Santa Fe, whither he had conducted 
his illustrious protigd. After that, he could succor Columbus 
in no other way than by extending him that sympathy 
which the noble hearted are ever ready to give to genius 
overtaken by ill fortune. 

As for Diego de Deza, he lived at the Court, w^here his 
preceptorial charge kept him near to the person of the 
young prince, the heir. It was his mediation which saved 
all. "After the sessions of the commission," says Las Casas, 
"Columbus was entirely abandoned, the sovereigns giving 
him to understand that there was nothing for him to do 
but to withdraw. On receiving the Queen's order to depart, 
he took leave of those who had befriended and favored 
him, and set out for Cordova, with the firm intention of 
proceeding to France, to present his schemes there and once 
more to try his fortune."* 

But in that hour, some one stopped the discoverer, sad 
but not discouraged. That person did not discover the 
Indies, but he assuredly saved them for Spain. That man 
was Diego de Deza. For this fact we have the warranty, 
not of suspected chroniclers, but once more of Christopher 
Columbus himself. He surely had discernment enough, and 
was sufficiently acquainted with the Court not to confound 

* " Vino en total despedimiento, mandando los Reyes que le dijesen que 
se fuese en hora buena. ... El cual, despedido por mandado de la 
Reina, despidi6se ^1 de los que alii le favorecian ; tom6 el camino para 
C6rdoba con determinada voluntad de pasarse S, Francia y hacer lo que 
arriba se dijo." — Hist, de las Indias^ i. p. 243. 

83' 



Deza with Cardinal Mendoza, as does Oviedo, and still less 
with Louis de Santangel, as do the Histories. 

On Dec. 21, 1504, Columbus wrote to his son and successor, 
Don Diego, telling him to take steps to learn if Queen 
Isabella had mentioned him in her will; and he furthermore 
exhorts Diego to urge Deza, who was then bishop of 
Palencia, to take the matter in hand. Then he adds the 
following memorable words: "It is he (Deza) who was the 
cause of their Highnesses possessing the Indies, and of my 
remaining in Castille after I had already set out for foreign 
parts."* 

Against this testimony, no allegation, no historical sub- 
tlety will prevail. If any one knew who stopped and de- 
tained Columbus at the time he left Castille and disuaded 
him from going to France and finally put him on the way 
to the Indies, it is Columbus himself. And Columbus tells us, 
without the possibility of doubt or of equivocation, that that 
man was he who had been his protector from the first, his 
friend at Salamanca, the almoner of his first maravedis, 
Diego de Deza: " // is he who is the cause of their High- 
nesses possessing the Indies, and of my retnaining in Cas- 
tille after I was already on the road for foreign parts.'' 
Far be it from us to wrong any one, but history has its 
rights. We believe that the united claims of all the protect- 
ors of Columbus, real and pretended, do not, in the eyes of 
an impartial mind, overpoise the weight of this immortal phrase. 

Immense was the glory that awaited Columbus on his re- 
turn from the discovery of the Indies. He was universally 
extolled. History knows the great triumph and rejoicing 
with which he was welcomed back after his perilous voyage ; 
but, alas, it also knows that his good fortune was not to 
endure. After his second voyage, he became the object of 
the envy and slander of enemies. He returned from his 
third voyage, loaded with chains like a criminal and divested 

* " Es de trabajar de saber si la Reina, que Dios tiene, dejo dicho 
algo en su testamento de mi, y es de dar priesa al Sr. Obispo de Palen- 
cia, el que fud causa que Sus Altezas hubiesen las Indias, y que yo quedase 
en Castilla, que ya estaba yo de camino para fuera." — Navarrete, Coleccion, 
i. p. 356. 

84 



of the government of the Indies and of his titles. Although 
the sovereigns did something to redress his grievances, still 
they did not render him full justice. From the loth of 
April, 1495, Ferdinand, contrary to his agreement, had de- 
clared the navigation of the Indies free.* 

Thenceforth Columbus had to suffer the mistrust and ill- 
will of the King and of his administration. It was with 
exceeding difficulty that he prepared for his last voyage and 
armed four poor caravels. 

The Admiral's expedition of 1502, begun under such 
unfavorable auspices, resulted in a downright failure. He 
returned and landed at San Lucar de Barrameda, Nov. 7, 
1504, and re-entered Spain never again to leave it. This 
last voyage to the Indies not only failed to better the 
position of Columbus, but it even notably made it worse. 
The expedition failed to accomplish its object. The Admiral 
did not find the straits he had gone to seek off the coasts 
of Darien. He brought back no gold, although he had 
caught a glimpse of wealth at Veragua. His ships had 
encountered fierce gales. Sky and sea seemed united to 
thwart him. His crew had mutinied woefully, and the 
dangers he thus ran surpassed even those of tempests. 
Sufferings and desperate struggling had brought him down 
and confined him to his bed, and had forever broken his 
health and energy. The trip to Santo Domingo fairly failed 
to recover him his revenues and to regain his rights, and, 
finally, he returned having accomplished nothing, without 
resources, his crew almost starved, his vessels wrecks, 
himself almost on the brink of death. 

Disembarking at San Lucar, Columbus' first thought was to 
proceed to the Court, to give an account of his voyage to 
the Catholic sovereigns, and to urge them to satisfy his 
legitimate claims. But sickness detained him at Seville, and 
all the winter he was unable to set out for the Court. In 
the meantime, with the design of better securing his rights, 
he sent his son and successor, Don Diego, to Segovia, to 
present himself to the sovereigns. The correspondence 

♦Navarrete, Coleccion, ii. i86, 187. 
8S 



between the father and son during these months of their 
separation reveals how constant and importunate the Admiral 
was in pressing his claims upon Ferdinand and Isabella. It 
is also these letters, written by the failing hand of the 
Admiral, which have proved of invaluable assistance in this 
recital of the relations between Columbus and Diego de 
Deza. They have furnished us the surest and the most 
important data, which we have so far utilized in this paper. 
They shall further inform us of the firm reliance which 
Columbus placed in his protector of Salamanca and Santa Fe 
down to his last day. 

When Columbus returned from his fourth voyage, Diego de 
Deza was still at the Court. The young prince, whose preceptor 
he was, had died (Oct. 4, 1497), at the age of nineteen years. He 
bore with him to the tomb the regrets of the whole nation, 
and with him departed the hopes of the aged sovereigns.* 

Ferdinand and Isabella were unwilling to lose the ser\nces 
of Deza, and they accordingly retained him, raising him to 
the highest ecclesiastical dignities of the kingdom. In 1497, 
Deza was transferred from Zamora to the See of Salamanca, 
and, in the following year, to that of Jaen. It was just 
at the time that the Inquisitor General, Thomas de Torque- 
mada, died (Sept. 16, 1498). The sovereigns appointed Deza 
to succeed him in his oifice, and he was confirmed by a 
pontifical brief of Dec. ist of the same year. The 
following year (Dec. 8, 1499), Alonzo de Burgos, the old and 
faithful friend of Deza, also passed away. Deza replaced 
him in the See of Palencia (1500), and was honored with 
the additional titles of first royal confessor and chancellor 
of Castille. After the Sovereigns, he became the chief 
personage of the Court, f 

* Don Juan, Prince of Asturias, was born at Seville, June 30, 1479. He 
died at Salamanca. (M. Lafuente, Historia Generale de EspaHa, Madrid, 1853, 
torn. X. pp. 62, 75.) At the National Library of Madrid, in the MS. Dd., 
149. pa&s 1581 there was a letter of Deza to the sovereigns on the death of 
the prince. Some vandal hand tore out the leaves from page 136 to page 162. 
We do not know if this valuable document was published, or if there are 
copies of it extant. The letter very likely contained an account of the last 
moments of the young prince whom Deza had assisted. 

+ " Deinde in Pastorale album admissus quatuor Episcopalium sedium 



It was in Deza that Columbus centred his hopes of ob- 
taining justice and protection from Ferdinand and Isabella. 
Certainly he could not have desired a patron at once more 
powerful and more devoted. In his first letter to his son, 
nay, in the first few lines of his letter, he bears witness 
to all he owes Deza. " My dear son," writes Columbus, on 
Nov. 21, 1504, "I received your letter by the courier. You 
have done well in remaining there, in order to better the 
state of our affairs and to put them in order. The Lord 
Bishop of Palencia has always favored me and desired my 
honor ever since I came to Castille." These words of the 
Admiral were surely designed to remind the son of all that 
Deza had done for his father, and to give him to under- 
stand that in all his business at the Court he should count 
on the Chancellor of Castille and trust to his unfailing sup- 
port. Columbus rightly believed that this patronage, already 
so long exercised, and amidst such solemn circumstances, 
could not now fail of succoring him in his latest ill-fortune. 
To this assurance of the signal part Deza had taken in the 
past, Columbus adds what he further expects to obtain 
through his mediation : ' ' You should beg him to endeavor 
to find a remedy for my ills so many. Let him see to it 
that their Highnesses keep the compact and carry out the 
letters of favor which they granted to me, in order that I 
may be indemnified for my many injuries. He may be sure 
that, if their Highnesses acquit themselves of their obliga- 
tions, it will prove of incredible advantage to them in for- 
tune and in glory."* 

Antistites, Zamorensis nempe, Salmanticensis, et Palentinae (quam dum 
regeret summum etiam Fidei causarum in his regnis arbitrium tutelam 
suscepit) Gienennensisque una cum honoribus Regxim Protomystae, Castellseque 
Cancellarum ; atque inde Hispalensis archiepiscopus." — Nic. Antonio, Bibl. 
Nov. Hispan., t. i. 215, col. 2. This writer erroneously places Jaen after 
Palencia. It was as Bishop of Palencia that Deza received his appointment 
to the chancellorship of Castille. Some writers give Nov. 7th as the date of 
the death of Alonzo de Burgos. See Gams, Series Episcop., p. 64. In 
Touron, correct the date of his death, t. iii. p. 697, by that of p. 727. 
The chronology of the sees occupied by Deza has already been given in the 
preceding pages. For the date of his appointment as Inquisitor : Llorente, 
Histoire de P Inquisition d''Espagne, Paris, 1817, t. i. p. 289. 

♦ " El Sr. Obispo de Palencia, siempre desque yo vine i Castilla me ha 

87 



Columbus, detained at Seville by fatigue and attacks of 
gout, announces his near departure for the Court, but he 
fears that sickness will hold him back on the way. His fears 
were, indeed, realized. Sickness and the severity of the 
winter delayed his journey until spring. 

Meanwhile, among the recommendations which the Admiral 
makes to his son, be that one noted in which he asks him to 
endeavor to have the wages paid to those sailors who had 
accompanied him on his last voyage and who were now 
reduced to very straitened circumstances. This matter is 
also referred to the Bishop of Palencia.* 

In his letter of Dec. i, Columbus congratulates his son on 
having remained at the Court in the interest of their affairs. 
He directs him to procure a copy of the articles which 
recognize his rights in the royal privileges, so that he may 
act in his own name in the absence of his father. He exhorts 
him to endeavor to secure the revenues accruing to them 
on the exports of the Indies, and he adds: "You should 
apprise the Bishop of this matter, and also of the great 
confidence I have in him."f 

About this time the question of establishing several 
bishoprics in the Indies was first discussed, and Deza was 
charged to negotiate the matter. Columbus expressed a 
wish to be heard on the subject before it came to be de- 
finitely arranged: "It is said here that measures are being 
taken to send three or four bishops to the Indies, and 
that the matter has been entrusted to the Lord Bishop of 
Palencia. After having recommended me to his kindness, tell 
him that I believe it would be of service to their Highnesses 
if I could consult with him before anything is concluded."^: 

favorecido y deseado mi honra. Agora es de le suplicar que les plega de 
entender en el remedio de tantos agravfos mi'os ; y que el asiento y cartas 
de merced que sus altezas me hicieron, que las manden cumplir y satisfacer 
tantos daiios ; y sea cierto que sf esto hacen Sus Altezas que les multi- 
plicard la hacienda y grandeza in increible g^ado. "— Navarrete, Coleccion, t. i. 
P- 334- 

* Postscript to the same letter. 

+ " Al Sr. Obispo de Palencia es de dar parte desto con de la tanta 
confianza que ru su merced tengo."— Navarrete, Coleccion, i. p. 339. 

X " Ac4 se diz que se ordena de enviar 6 facer tres 6 quatro Obispos de las 

88 



Columbus likewise announces the departure of his brother, 
Bartholomew, and of his j'oungest son, Ferdinand, for the 
Court. They are to join Diego and aid him in pushing his 
affairs. They set out on Dec. 5, taking with them the sum 
of 150 ducats and a memorial wherein Columbus sets forth 
the object of his claims. 

Meanwhile Isabella had died, Nov. 27, at Medina del 
Campo. She it was, of the two Sovereigns of Castille, who 
had testified a real interest in Columbus, and who had 
treated him with kindness. She was taken from this life 
just when her protection was more than ever necessary to 
Columbus to clear up the difficulties of his position. One of 
the first cares of the Admiral, after the regretted loss of his 
royal friend, was to learn if Isabella had made any provi- 
sion for him in her will. Again it is to Deza that he ap- 
plies for the desired information. Writing to his son Diego, 
on Dec. 21, he says: "You should try to learn if the Queen, 
who is before God, has mentioned me in her testament. 
Urge the Lord Bishop of Palencia to take this matter in 
hand. It is he who is the cause of their Highnesses pos- 
sessing the Indies, and who detained me in Castille after I 
was already on the way for foreign parts."* 

No one could better advise Columbus of this point than 
Diego de Deza. As confessor of Isabella and Chancellor of 
Castille, it was for him to witness the last moments of the 
Queen, and to be concerned in the question of the succes- 
sion. He was at Medina del Campo during Isabella's ill- 
ness, f to assist his royal and Christian penitent, and 
she, in her affection for Deza, chose him to be one of her 

Indias, y que al Sr. Obispo de Palencia estd remitido esto. Despues de 
me encomendado en su merced dile que creo que serd servicio de Sus Alte- 
zas que yo fable con el primero que concluya esto."— Navarrete, Coleccion, i. 
p. 340. 

*"Es de trabajar de saber si la Reina, que Dios tiene, dej6 dicho algo 
en su testamento de mi, y es de dar priesa al Sr. Obispo Palencia, el que 
pue causa que Sus Altezas hubiesen las Indias, y que yo quedase en Cas- 
tilla, que ya estaba yo de camino para fuera." — Navarrete, Coleccion, i. p. 346. 

+ On November 15, 1504, Deza published a regulation relative to the In- 
quisition (Llorente, Hist. Criti. de I'/ng. Esp., i. p. 331), and it was dated 
from Medino del Campo (Touron, /. c, p. 727). 

89 



executors, placing his name immediately after those of the King 
and of the Archbishop, the primate of Toledo. * 

Unfortunately, the Queen had not mentioned the viceroy 
of the Indies in her will. The deep respect and the entire 
deference which she professed for her associate on the 
throne had undoubtedly made her fearful of marking out a 
line of conduct for Ferdinand, and she was unwilling to in- 
commode or displease him. By the death of Isabella, 
Columbus must have realized that the best of his hopes 
were shattered. 

In the same letter of Dec. i, Columbvis transmits a 
copy of the writing which he had prepared for the Pope, 
at his express wish. Before his communication is forwarded 
to the Sovereign Pontiff, the Admiral wishes it to be sub- 
mitted to the inspection of the King or of the Bishop of 
Palencia, in order, as he says, to avoid false reports, f 

It may here be pointed out that the correspondence of 
Columbus thus far cited, along with that to which we shall 
further have recourse, of itself clearly proves that the Bishop 
of Palencia was then holding one of the first offieial posi- 
tions in the administration of the kingdom. There is no 
explaining Columbus' course in designating Deza to examine 
his document in the event of the King's omission or failure 
to do so, if, in a matter of this character, Deza had not 
some other right to intermediate than that of a mere benev- 
olent patron. Even the position of confessor of the Sove- 
reigns is insufficient to explain the part taken by the 
Bishop of Palencia in the highly important business of state 
and government questions. However, we know from other 
sources that, when Columbus was prosecuting his case at 
the Court, his protector of old had then for some years 
been Chancellor of Castille ; and it is in that capacity that 

* " Nombro por testamentarios al Rey y al Arzobispo de Toledo, y 4 don 
Diego de Deza, Obispo de Palencia Antonio de Fonseca y Juan Veldsquez 
sus contadores mayores, y d su secretario, Juan Lopez de Lezarraga Mariana." 
— Hist. General de EspaAa, lib. xxviii. cap. xi. 

t " El traslado de la carta te envio. Querria que le viese el Rey nuestro 
Seiior, 6 el Sr. Obispo de Palencia, primero que yo envie la cartA por 
evitar testimonios falsos." — Navarrete, Coieccion, i. p. 346. 



he enters into the negotiations of Diego Columbus, and that 
his name appears in the greater part of the Admiral's let- 
ters. 

In a letter of Dec. 29, Columbus again alludes to the sub- 
ject : "The King or the Bishop of Palencia should see the 
copy of the letter for the Pope, in order to avoid false re- 
ports." * 

The Admiral then directs the attention of his son to a 
letter for Deza. He and his brother and his uncle are to 
take cognizance of it.f 

One of the objects of this letter, which is unfortunately lost, 
was to recommend the case of the sailors who had accompanied 
him on his voyage. These unfortunates had not yet got their 
pay and were in sore need. 

On January 18, 1505, Columbus for the last time reverts to the 
examination which he desired the King or Deza to make of his 
letter to the Pope. J 

This new instance deserves attention, for it is of some im- 
portance for the chronology of the various episcopal sees occupied 
by Deza. This time the Bishop of Palencia is mentioned as the 
Archbishop of Seville. Ortiz de Zuniga informs us that the 
btdls of Deza's nomination to this new see arrived at Seville 
December 21, 1504. § 

After that, Columbus, being in that city, had knowledge of the 
appointment, and it is most likely that his letter, which he sent 
to Deza, by courier, on the 29th of December, was a letter of 
congratulation to his old friend and protector on his elevation to 
that high ecclesiastical position, which ranked first in the peninsula 
after that of Toledo. || 

* " Este translado envio para que le vea Su Alteza, 6 el Sr. Obispo de 
Palencia por evitar testimonios falsos." — Navarrete, ibid.^ p. 347. 

t " Yo le di una carta para le Sr. Obispo de Palencia : vedla y veala tu tio y 
hermano y Carvajal." — Navarrete, ibid., p. 348. 

t " La Carta del Santo Padre dije que era para que su merced la viese si alii estaba, 
y el Senor Arzobispo de Sevilla que el Rey non ternd lugar para ella." — Navarrete, 
CoUccion, t. i. p. 350. 

§ It is to be observed, however, that, in his letter of December 29, Columbus 
still calls Deza Bishop of Palencia. 

\Anales, note by Navarrete, ibid., p. 350. 



In the meantime the measures of the son and of the 
brother of the Admiral, together with the efforts of Deza, 
did not avail much to hasten the Admiral's affairs to a 
close, at least as far as the principal question was concerned — 
his restoration to his titles and the recovery of his pecuniary 
rights in the New World. The resistance of the King was 
not to be overcome. Ferdinand had never had any regard 
for Columbus, and, since the discovery of the Indies had 
given a realty to the titles and quasi-royal privileges 
conceded by him, he, as it seemed, looked with regret upon 
the possibility of a greatness and power which would 
perhaps overshadow a part of his own majesty. Ferdinand 
suffered the proceedings of Columbus and his mandataries 
to drag on interminably. Apparently kindly disposed, he 
was at heart resolute not to permit the rise of Columbus 
and the establishment of his fortune. Fearing that his own 
person was the obstacle to the King's good will, Columbus 
offered to relinquish his titles and rights in favor of his 
son and heir, Diego; but it was all in vain. Ferdinand did 
not even give answer to the propositions of Columbus. 

It was only in May that the Admiral was able to under- 
take the journey to the Court at Segovia. He thought 
that his presence would hasten the concession of his just 
and equitable claims. But therein he deceived himself 
again. 

Las Casas appears to be the historian who best knew 
the King's disposition at this time, and he is the most 
independent in his judgment of him. He tells us that his 
information came from persons who stood high in Ferdinand's 
favor. The historian of the Indies thus describes the first 
interview of the sovereign and of Columbus: " The Admiral 
left Seville for the Court in May, 1505. The Court was 
then at Segovia. Upon his arrival, his brother and he 
went to kiss the hands of the King, and he received them 
with some semblance of pleasure."* 

* " El Almirante partisse para la corte por el mes de Mayo, afio de 1505, 
la qual estaba en Segovia ; y llegando el y su hermano el Adelantado, d 
besar las manos la Rey, ricibi61es con algun semblante alegre," etc.— /fz'si. de 
las Indias, t. iii. p. 187. 



Columbus recounted the labors he had undertaken in the 
King's service, and asked him to fulfill the promises he had 
made. "The King replied," continues Las Casas, "that he 
acknowledged that he owed the Indies to Columbus, and 
that the latter had merited the recompense granted to him ; 
but that, the better to arrange his affairs, he designed to ap- 
point a person to represent him (the Admiral). Columbus 
replied, ' It shall be whomsoever your Highness deputes ; ' 
then he added, ' Who could do it better than the Archbishop 
of Seville, since he is the cause of your Highness's possess- 
ing the Indies?' The Admiral spoke thus, because the Arch- 
bishop of Seville, Don Diego de Deza, prior of the order 
of St. Dominic, when he was preceptor of the prince Don 
Juan, had strongly urged the Queen to accept the under- 
taking."* 

This recital shows us what confidence Columbus always 
placed in Diego de Deza. The protector did not fail his 
client. They both strove to overcome the resolution of the 
King to accord nothing. The Sovereign's pretext of an in- 
termediary agent was but a temporizing shift and a means 
of avoiding direct personal relations with the Admiral, 
whose presence would not permit him to be hard when 
Columbus demanded the acknowledgment and adjustment 
of his lawful claims. But it was written to the misfortune 
and to the glory of the discoverer of the Indies that his 
cause was a lost cause. 

Las Casas severely judged the conduct of Ferdinand, but, 
as it appears, without partiality. " One would believe," he 
says, ' ' that, if Ferdinand could have done it with a safe 
conscience and without dishonor to his name, he would have 
respected none of the privileges which he and the Queen 

* " El Rey le respondio que bien via ^1 que le habia dado las Indias, 
y habia merecido las mercedes que le habia hecho, y que para que su nego- 
cio se determinase seria bien senalar una persona; dijo el Almirante, 'sea 
la que Vuestra Alteza mandare,' y aiiido ; 'quien lo puedo mejor hacer que 
el Arzobispo de Sevilla, pues habia sido causa, con el camarero, que Su 
Alteza hobiesse las Indias?' Esto dijo, porque, este Arzobispo de Sevilla 
que era D. Diego de Deza, fraile de Santo Domingo, siendo maestro del 
Principe D. Juan, insistio mucho con la reina que aceptase aquesta em- 
presa."— /i5z(^., p. i88. 

93 



had accorded to the Admiral, and which the latter had so 
well deserved." "I know not," he continues, "what could 
cause that coldness and aversion to a man who had rendered 
him so great service, if it was not that his mind was 
misled by the false imputations lodged against the Admiral, 
as I have learned from persons enjoying the favor of the 
Sovereign." * 

As a matter of fact, the King not only failed to grant 
any favor to Columbus, but he even put all possible 
difficulties in his way, without, however, ceasing to shower 
compliments upon him.f 

Columbus spent a whole year in the disagreeable position 
of an importunate solicitor. To tell the truth, important 
sums were paid to the Admiral's brother to cover the 
expenses of the fourth voyage, and to Diego Columbus, 
who had a title at the Court, | but the principal 
question was left unheeded. Once, indeed, the King, 
yielding to his political preoccupations, went so far as to 
offer Columbus the fief of Carrion de las Condes in 
Castille, in exchange for the renunciation of his title of 
Viceroy of the Indies and for the surrender of his other 
privileges. But Columbus indignantly repelled this royal 
affront. When he saw that all was over, at least as far as 
the King was concerned, and that he could no longer 
expect anything from him, not even justice, he turned to 
his constant protector, no less powerless than himself, 
though ever remaining the same to him. It was into the 
heart of Deza that he poured his last plaints. He was the 
most worthy of receiving them, and the most capable of 
sharing his last sorrows. " It seems," wrote Columbus to 
the Archbishop of Seville, " it seems that his Highness 
does not judge fit to fulfill the promises which I received 
from him and from the Queen, who is now in the abode of 
blessedness, notwithstanding their word and their seal. To 

♦This judgment is confirmed by the importunate requests of Columbus to 
have his letter to the Pope inspected by the King or Deza, so as to avoid 
the false reports. 

i Historia de las Indias, cap. xxxvii. 

tThe title of "Contino" was given to him on Nov. 15, 1503. 



fight against the King's will would be to fight against the 
wind. I have done all that I should. The rest I leave to 
God, who has never forsaken me in my needs."* 

This, then, was the incomparable glory of Deza, twenty 
years earlier, to give Columbus the first words of encou- 
ragement, and, in the end, to receive the last confidences 
of that bruised and broken heart. In the interval, Deza 
had had credit enough to prevail upon the sovereigns to 
accept the undertaking of the discovery. Who will not 
henceforth admit, in the very words of the illustrious dis- 
coverer himself, that it was indeed Diego de Deza who 
always favored Columbus, and desired his honor ever since 
his coming into Castille ? That he furthermore was the 
cause of their Highnesses possessing the Indies, and for 
having detained Columbus when he was already on the 
road for foreign parts ? 

The Admiral had followed the Court to Valladolid. It is 
there that he died, May 20, 1506. Spain knew not of his 
death. It was scarcely known around his very bier, and the 
chronicles of the city forgot to mention the event. 

Deza had made his solemn entry into Seville, Oct. 24, 
1505. f He seems shortly after to have quitted the Court, 
from which the Queen's death, the misfortunes of Columbus, 
and the policy of Ferdinand had alienated him. At Seville, 
Deza did not cease to cherish the remembrance of the events 
which had so long linked his life to the destiny of Columbus. 
His archiepiscopal city was the centre, as it were, whither 
all the stir and bustling excitement of the New World found 
its way and was echoed from across the ocean. Thither 
Ferdinand, the second son of Columbus, also repaired to 
devote himself to the peaceful pursuit and cult of letters 
and of the sciences. Who would doubt that he entered into 
friendly relations with the benefactor of his father? Every- 
thing at Seville turned Deza's thoughts back upon a cher- 
ished past. We know that he loved to recall his close and 

*Navarrete, Coleccion, iii., cited by M. F. Tarducci, Vita di Cristoforo 
Colombo, Milano, 1885, t. ii. p. 629, and P. Gaffarel, Hist, de la D^couverte 
de rAm^rigue, Paris, 1892, t. ii. p. 383. 

t Ortiz de Zufiiga, Anales, loc. cit. 

95 



intimate relations with the discoverer of the Indies and the 
support which he had constantly lent him. Las Casas re- 
lates that it was of notoriety that the Archbishop was proud 
to tell how his interpositions had brought about the deci- 
sion of the sovereigns to accept the projects of Columbus. 
" In a letter written by his own hand," says Las Casas, "I 
saw that Columbus told the King, that the master of the 
prince, the Archbishop of Seville, Don Friar Diego de Deza, 
was the cause of the sovereigns becoming possessed of the 
Indies. Long before I had seen that written testimony, in 
the Admiral's own hand, I learned that the Archbishop of 
Seville gloried in having caused the sovereigns to accept the 
enterprise of the discovery of the Indies."* 

There is scarcely call to conclude. It is sufficiently seen 
if, at the end of our study, we have reason to write that 
Diego de Deza was the great protector of Columbus. Whilst 
there are many clear testimonials in the celebrated naviga- 
tor's own hand, in favor of Deza, there is, besides that one 
sentence which at once limits the number of those who 
aided him and excludes all vain pretensions, not a word to 
substantiate the claims of any other patronage. All the world 
ridiculed Columbus, save two monks, who were always faith- 
ful. Those two religious — we know it beyond all dispute — 
were Diego de Deza and Antonio de Marchena. Both alike 
sympathized with the Genoese mariner ; both were equally 
devoted to him ; and, if, in view of the ultimate results of 
their protector, there was a marked difference between their 
influence and action, yet there was none in their noble wish 
to serve Columbus. 

The venerable guardian of La Rabida knew Columbus 

* " En carta escrita de su mano, de Cristobal Colon, vide que decia al 
rey (?) que el suso dicho maestro del principe, Arzobispo de Seville, D. Fray 
Diego de Deza, y el dicho camarero, Juan Cabrero, habian sido causa que 
los reyes tuvierssen las Indias. E muchos afios antes que lo viese yo escrito 
de la letra del Almirante Colon, habia vido decir, que el dicho Arzobispo 
de Sevilla por si, y lo mismo el camarero, Juan Cabrero, se gloriaban que 
habian sido la causa de que los reyes aceptasen la dicha empresa y 
discubrimiento de las Indias." — Hist, de las Indias, t. i. p. 228. The title of 
Cabrero in this affair rests upon a countersense in the reading of Columbus' 
letter, bearing date Dec. 21, 1504.— Navarrete, Qolecdon, t. i. p. 346. 

96 



during some six months preceding the departure of his 
client for the Indies. He was unable to sway the Com- 
mission of Santa F6 in a decision favorable to Columbus.* 
Deza, on the contrary, was on most intimate terms with the 
Admiral for twenty years. His high position at the Court 
enabled him, at various times, to render Columbus most 
signal assistance, and, above all, to gain the acceptance of his 
schemes of discovery. The patronages of Columbus are, then, 
strictly limited to two — those of Diego de Deza and Antonio 
de Marchena. We shall not here task the reader with further 
examinations of the alleged claims of some pretended protectors. 
It will for the time suffice us to lay down the assertion that, 
besides the principal iniluence and action of Deza, the study 
of which we have pursued to some length, and that of 
Antonio de Marchena, less important and more secondary, 
which we have barely mentioned, in order to maintain what is 
due to him, there is no other which can be verified as real. 
These, we believe, are the limits of the domain of history in 
this case, and we decline to overstep them and to commit 
ourselves to those of the arbitrary and of legend. f 

* ■' It was not then, at the end of the year 1484, but seven years later, 
in the beginning of the winter of 1491-1492, that Columbus for the first 
time repaired to the Monastery of La Rabida." 

" It can no longer be said that he went there twice : once on arriving 
from Portugal in 1484 ; a second time when he was making preparations to 
leave Spain, in 1492." — Harrisse, Christophe Colombo t. i. p. 348. These 
conclusions of M. Harrisse, based on the deposition of an eye-witness, 
appear to us to be certain. 

tThis paper is from the French MS. of the Rev. P. Mandonnet, O. P., 
Professor of History at the University of Friburg, Switzerland, who has in 
preparation several studies on the part taken by the Dominicans in the events 
relative to the discovery of America. 



97 



THE JESUIT PAPER. 



^ 

^ 



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I 



^;s 



'r^ 



1 I / 




I; 



If V 



THE JESUIT MlSSi' 



fmimUT^ this n< 



1-' H,^ IMW- A N,|?l,eTiH'^iti,AT H U 1 I C . 

I-'roni the recumbent statue upon the mausoleum in the 
Cathedral of Granada.^ 

Ferdinand survived Tsa^bella nearly ten years. The tomb 
in which his remains repose by the side of Isabella was 
erected by their grandson, Charles V. It is of white marble 
and adorned -witli richly sculptured figures of angels and 
saints, and is said to be the work of the celebrated artist, 
Philip of Burgundy. The effigies of the illustrious pair 
repose on the top, and their achievements are inscribed 
upon the tomb. A cast of the mausoleum will be found in 
the Gallery of Sculptures in the palace of Versailles. This 
engraN-ing is from Gavard's Galeries Historiques de Versailles, 
Har?«i'tS4V 
■^^-vlth 

'exas, Ivie: 
^hio, Lotii 

.quent centur 



Anzona, Dakota, ^ 
said, therefore, that Liieix 



THE JESUIT MISSIONS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Rev. J. F. X. O'CONOR, S.J. 




|N this necessarily brief account of the Jesuit Mis- 
sions in the United States, it is intended to 
recall the fact that the Fathers of the Society 
of Jesus during the past two hundred and fifty 
years have visited or established missions in nearly every 
state of the Union. In almost every one of these states 
the Jesuit Fathers were the pioneer missionaries, explorers 
or settlers. 

In the first hundred years from 1613, when Father Biard 
entered Maine, to 1776, they had traversed the states on 
the Atlantic Coast, from Maine to Florida, as well as those 
on the slope of the Pacific, while from 1776 to 1893 their 
missions have embraced every state of the interior, com- 
prising the missions of Fr. De Smet in the Rocky Moun- 
tains, the Indian Territories, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and 
beyond, even to the remote regions of Alaska. 

In the century before the Declaration of Independence 
they had visited the following states : Maine, and the region 
then under the jurisdiction of that State, Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, 
Florida, Texas, Mexico, California, Michigan, Wisconsin, Mis- 
sissippi, Ohio, Louisiana, Illinois, and Missouri. 

In the subsequent century from 1776 to 1892 the missions 
of the Society of Jesus under De Smet, Weninger, and 
Cataldo included the Pacific Slope and the states of the in- 
terior, Washington Territory and Oregon, Idaho, Colorado and 
Arizona, Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, and Alaska. It may be 
said, therefore, that there is not an extended portion of these 



United States on the Atlantic Coast or the territories of the 
Pacific, whether among the recesses of the Rocky Mountains, 
in the region of the Mexican Gulf, the frozen plains of 
Alaska or the great Northern Lakes, that has not been a 
witness to the labors and sufferings of the missionaries of 
the Society of Jesus. 

The first missions of which we have a record in those in- 
valuable documents of early American history, the "Jesuit 
Relations"* and the " Lettres Edifiantes,"-|- are the missions 
of Maine. The missions in the North of the United States 
besides those in Maine among the Abnakis, were in Michi- 
gan and Ohio, as well as in Canada among the Hurons, in 
New York among the Iroquois, in Wisconsin and Michigan 
among the Ottawas, in Illinois among the Illinois Indians, 
and in the South, the missions of Louisiana. 

* The chief source of Information in regard to the earlier days of the 
Jesuit Missions in America is the series of detailed reports written by the 
Fathers to their Superiors, and are Icnown as the "Jesuit Relations." "In 
regard to the condition and primitive character of the inhabitants of North 
America it is impossible," says Parkman, "to exaggerate their value as an 
authority. The 'Relations' hold a high place as authentic and trust- 
worthy historical documents." These invaluable documents of the early his- 
tory of North America, reports sent by the Jesuit missionaries each year to 
their superiors, comprise the years 1632 to ^(i^^-^^2. in the volumes in this 
country. In that period 1632-1671, there are 45 volumes. Harvard Library 
has 40 ; 1632, 1654, 1658, 1659, 1665 are missing. J. C. Brown, Providence, 
R. I., has 38 vols.-. Hon. H. C. Murphy, Brooklyn, has 29; Hon. N. C 
Gallatin, N. C, has 22 ; Rev. M. Plante, Quebec, has 20 ; State Library, 
Albany, has 8. Other volumes are found in various institutions and private 
libraries. The new series published in 1858 in Quebec under the auspices of 
the Canadian Government and at its expense, besides the period beginning 
1632, includes the "Relations" of 1611-1626 (Quebec, 1858), 1672-1679 cParis, 1891). 

t Lockman, the Protestant writer, in his extracts from the " Lettres Edi- 
fiantes et Curieuses," written by the Jesuit Missionaries, says : " I believe it 
will be granted that no men are better qualified to describe nations and 
countries than the Jesuits. Their education, their extensive learning, the 
pains they take to acquire the languages of the several nations they visit, 
the opportunities they have by their skill in the arts and sciences, . . . 
the familiarity with the inhabitants, their mixing with and very often long 
abode amongst them— these, I say, must necessarily give our Jesuits a much 
more perfect insight into the genius and character of a nation than others 
who visit coasts only and that merely on account of traffic or other lucra- 
tive motives." ("Jesuit Travels," Introd.) 



The first missionaries on American soil were those sent to 
Port Royal, the present Annapolis of Nova Scotia.* They 
were Father Peter Biard and Fr. Enemond Mass6, who 
founded in the year 1612 the mission of St. Saviour on 
Mt. Desert Island, within the jurisdiction of Maine. To ac- 
complish their mission they were furnished with a share in 
the cargo and vessel, the only conditions by which they 
could make their way to the colony. The gift of the ves- 
sel and the means was made by Madame Guercheville. 
During their stay they met with violent and unjust treatment 
from Biencourt, the commander of the Colony. 

This colony at St. Saviour was surprised and broken up 
by Argal.f an Englishman, famous for fraud and injustice in 
Virginia. The two missionaries were carried to Virginia and 
finally sent back to France, where Fr. Biard died, while Fr. 
Masse returned and died in the Canadian missions of the 
Algonquins, on May 12th, 1646. The first Abnaki mission in 
Maine was thus destroyed through the malice of men who 
called themselves Christians. In the same year, 1646, Fr. 
Druillets:}: was sent to the Kennebec, while Fr. Jogues went 
to the Mohawk mission. 

The Abnakis received the missionary with joy. They 
mourned his departure when upon the order of his superiors 
in the following May he returned to Quebec. In 1650 Fr, 
Jogues again returned as the envoy of the Governor of 
Canada. At Roxbury he met Elliot,§ who had devoted him- 
self to the conversion of the Indians, and who invited him 
to pass the winter under his hospitable roof ; but rest was 
not part of the Jesuit's life. In February he was again 
with his Indians. 

After the first year's labor among the Indians, Fr. Druil- 
lets died in Quebec, at the age of eighty-eight, on April 8th, 1681. 

The work of Fr. Druillets was carried on chiefly by 
Fathers Bigot and Rale. || 

♦"Relation" of Fr. Biard, 1611. 

+ Charlevoix, "Hist. Canada," vol. i. p. 214. 

t" Relation" of 1646, p. 19. 

§ Letter of Fr. Druillets, " Hist. Canada," Ferland, i. 393. 

I "Relation" of Fr. James Bigot, 1684, p. 28. 

103 



In 1703 the later missions of Maine were transferred to 
the Jestdts, having been under the Fathers of Foreign Mis- 
sions, Frs. Henry GauHn and Rageot. New England had 
condemned the Catholic Missionaries to imprisonment for life, 
and yet sought their aid with the Abnakis to obtain neu- 
trality in the war of 1703 between England and France. 
The Governor, wishing to gain over the Abnakis, offered to 
build them a church if they would send away the mission- 
aries. The indignant Indian chief replied : ' ' When you first 
came here, you saw me, long before the French Governors, 
but neither you, nor your ministers ever spoke to me of 
prayer or of the Great Spirit. They saw my furs, my 
beaver skins, and about these alone they were anxious, 
these alone they sought, and so eagerly that I have not 
been able to supply them enough. Though I were loaded 
with furs, the black gown of France disdained to look at 
them. He spoke to me of the Great Spirit, of heaven, of 
hell, of prayer, which is the only way to reach heaven. 
Keep your gold and your minister," he concluded, " I will 
go to my French Father." And the Indian asked the black 
gown for baptism. 

The English had determined on the death of Fr. Rale.* 
In August, 1724, English and Mohawks burst upon his mis- 
sion. The missionary was the first to appear at the sound 
of the alarm. He had been warned of the enemy's design 
— but now came forward to sacrifice his own life to save 
his flock. No sooner had he reached the mission cross than 
a shout arose, and a volley of bullets laid him dead at the 
foot of the symbol of Redemption.! His Abnakis buried 
the body of their beloved missionary amid the ruins of the 
church where he had so often stood at the altar. 

Among the missionaries, Fr. Rale will rank as one of the 
greatest. He was learned, zealous, laborious, careful of his 
flock, desirous of martyrdom. His Abnakij: dictionary, written 

♦Bancroft, "Hist. U. S.," ii. 941. 

t Bancroft, "Hist. U. S.," ii. 944. 

t Bancroft, " Hist. U. S.," ii. 940. Fr. Rale died at the village of Nor- 
ridgewock (Charlevoix, "Hist, of Canada," iv. 120, 121). He was sixty-seven 



in 1 69 1, is preserved as a treasure at Harvard Library, and 
was published in the memoirs of the American Academy in 

1833- 

It was the faith and zeal of the Marchioness of Guerche- 
ville, as we have seen, that aided the Jesuits in founding 
their mission in 1612 at St. Saviour on Mt. Desert Island 
off the coast of Maine. At the same period other missions 
were founded in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, and Wisconsin. 

Bancroft, speaking of the magnificent labors of the 
Fathers, says: "Thus did the religious zeal of the French 
bear the cross to the banks of the St. Mary and the 
confines of Lake Superior, and look wistfully towards the 
homes of the Sioux in the valley of the Mississippi, five 
years before the New England Elliot had addressed the 
tribe of Indians that dwelt within six miles of Boston 
Harbor." 

The organizing of missionary work among the Indians of 
Maine had not been unnoticed by the authorities of 
Massachusetts, who claimed jurisdiction over Maine. In 
1698 the commissioners of the Bay Colony wished the 
Indians of Norridgewock and Androscoggin to dismiss the 
missionaries, but the Indians replied: "The good missionaries 
must not be driven away." 

In 1699 Fr. Vincent Bigot, who had been stationed in 
Maine on the Kennebec at Narantsouac,* through illness, 
was obliged to go to Quebec, but his brother, James, 
immediately took his place. The Chapel at Narantsouac 
had been erected in 1698 at Indian Old Point. 

The New England authorities treating with the Abnakis, 
ordered them to send away the three Jesuit Fathers 
and receive Protestant ministers from New England. 
The Indians would not listen to such a proposal, and said 
to the English envoy: "You are too late in undertaking 
to instruct us in prayer after all the years we have been 

years of age ; he spent thirty-seven years among the Indians, and of these twenty- 
eight were passed at Norridgewock. QBonial, Charlevoix, vol. iv. 122.) 

* " Jesuit Relations," 1652, p. 54. 



known to you. The Frenchman was wiser than you. As 
soon as we knew him he taught us to pray to God properly, 
and now we pray better than you." 

Massachusetts claimed all Maine as English territory, but 
the settlement of New England on Indian ground without 
regard to the claims of the Abnakis was resented by the 
Indians, who were encouraged by the French government 
to prevent English settlement on their lands. In 1704-5 
Massachusetts sent out two expeditions. One devastated the 
Penobscot. The other, under Colonel Hilton, destroyed the 
Indian wigwams, burnt the church, vestry, and residence 
of the missionary, pillaged and profaned everything that 
Catholics revere. 

Father Lauverjat was in charge of the Indians at 
Panawamske in 1727. After a time Frs. Lauverjat and 
Syresme retired from the mission, but Fr. Charles Germain, 
whose mission was on the St. John's River, still said mass 
for the Indians on the Kennebec and Penobscot, and he 
may be considered the last of the missionaries who planted 
the faith so firmly in the hearts of the Algonquins that the 
privations of priest and altar as well as the enticements 
of prosperity and error could not lure them from it. 

The first missions in Maine began in 1613, and were 
carried on at every sacrifice until 1727. 

Fr. Gabriel Druillets, who had already founded a mission 
among the Abnakis, returned to them in 1650. He was 
sent thence in a new character with letters from the 
Canadian Governor to the authorities in New England, 
to offer free intercolonial trade and to insure mutual 
protection against the Iroquois. 

At Norridgewock he was received with rapture by the 
Indians. The chief cried out: "I see well that the Great 
Spirit who rules in the heavens vouchsafes to look on 
us with favor, since he sends our patriarch back to us." 
Forwarding letters from the English port to announce the 
nature of his commission, in November he set out for Bos- 
ton with Noel Negataurat, chief of Sillery, and John Wins- 
low, whom the missionary calls his Pereira, alluding to the 
friend of St. Francis Xavier. 

X06 



At Boston Major-General Gibbons received him with 
courtesy. Fr. Druillets says: "He gave me the key of a 
room in his house where I could, in all liberty, say my 
prayers and perform the exercises of my religion."* As 
he naturally had his chapel service, it may reasonably be 
inferred that Fr. Druillets said mass in Boston in Decem- 
ber, 1650. After a reply from the Governor, and present- 
ing his case to the leading men, he returned to his labors. 

The commissioners of New England met at New Haven, f 
Conn., and Fr. Druillets was sent formally as an envoy 
from Canada with Mr. Godfrey. It is a curious episode 
that a priest should visit New England in an official capa- 
city where Christian civilization had made a law expelling 
every Jesuit, and dooming him to the gallows if he re- 
turned. After his diplomatic functions at Boston and New 
Haven, Fr. Druillets returned to his flock on the Kenne- 
bec, and some time later went to Quebec. 

From Connecticut we follow the work of the missionaries 
to New York. 

The first priest to enter the borders of the State of New 
York, and the first priest that came to the Island of Man- 
hattan, was Father Isaac Jogues. In 1642 he was taken 
prisoner by the Iroquois. In his captivity he was beaten 
with clubs and stones, his finger nails were pulled out, and 
the index finger of both hands eaten off. He was forced 
to carry heavy burdens in a march of five weeks, and then 
his right thumb was cut off by an Algonquin woman, a 
Christian, at the order of the Iroquois, and Rene Goupil, 
a lay brother, who accompanied Father Jogues, was killed 
by a blow from a hatchet. 

Arendt Van Cuyder aided Father Jogues to escape from 
the enraged Mohawks, and the Dutch protected him. 

After a long and terrible captivity Father Jogues escaped 
and was taken to the foot of Manhattan Island, where 
there were a few cabins, the beginning of the great city 
of New York. In New Amsterdam he met with the 

* " Hist. Canada," Ferland, i. p. 392. 

t Connecticut is called "Kunateguk." (Le.cer of Fr. Druillets, "Hist. 
Canada," Ferland, i. 393.) 

107 



greatest sympathy for his sufferings from the Director, 
William Kuyf, and from the minister, Dominie Megapolensis. 
His passage was secured by Hoyt to Holland, but trials 
were in store for him. In the storm the vessel met with 
on the way, it was driven on the English coast. Father 
Jogues arrived home in time to celebrate Christmas. The 
future State of New York had been traversed by a great 
and heroic priest, and another was soon to follow the same 
line of suffering. 

Father Jogues, after his tortures, arrived in France, where 
he was honored as a martyr. On asking permission of the 
Sovereign Pontiff to say Mass with his mutilated hands, it 
was given in words ever to be remembered: ''Indignuj/i 
esset Christi martyrem, Chris tt non bibere sangumetn" 
(It were not fitting that Christ's martyr should not drink 
the blood of Christ). 

Queen Anne of Austria wished to see him, and when 
conducted to her presence she kissed his mutilated hands, 
while the ladies of the court crowded around to do him 
homage. 

He returned to Montreal in the spring of 1644, and in 
1646, passing through the Mohawk country, came to Lake 
George, which he named Lac du St. Sacrament, because he 
reached it on the eve of Corpus Christi. In the same 
year, 1644, Fr. Bressani was taken captive. His hands 
were cut open, he was stabbed and burned no fewer than 
eighteen times. A stake was driven through his foot, and 
his hair and beard torn out by the roots. He escaped, 
and reached Europe November 16, 1644. 

In his mission of peace to the Mohawks, Father Jogues, who 
once more renewed his labors among his loved Indians, 
in company with John De Lande, fell into the hands of 
a band of warriors, and they were led as prisoners to 
Ossernenon in October, 1646. An Indian summoned him to 
a session of the Council. As he entered a cabin he was struck 
lifeless by a blow from a tomahawk. His body was thrown 
into the Mohawk, and his head set on one of the palisades 
of Ossernenon. The next morning the river bore away the 
bodies of his companions, De Lande and the Huron guide. 

108 



This was the first attempt to evangelize in the State of 
New York, In the minds of all Father Jogues was honored 
as a martyr. In the devotion to him that has become 
general, the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore petitioned 
that the cause of his canonization should be introduced. 
There is now a chapel at Auriesville, the site of Osser- 
nenon, and this shrine has already become a place of 
pilgrimage. 

From the year 1632 to 1642 the Huron Missions were 
evangelized by Frs. Le Jeune, Breboeuf, Daniel, and Daust. 
Chief among them was Breboeuf. "He was," as Parkman 
pictures him, "the masculine apostle of the faith — the Ajax 
of the mission. Nature had given him all the passions of a 
vigorous manhood, and religion had crushed them, curbed 
them or tamed them to do her work — liked a dammed up 
torrent sluiced and guided to grind and saw and weave for 
the good of man." Fr. Breboeuf visited the Neutral nation, 
whose settlement was in the western part of New York.* 

On the i6th of March, being captured by the Iroquois, 
Fr. Breboeuf and his companions were led to torture. Fr. 
Breboeuf was bound to a stake, but seemed more anxious 
for the captive converts than for himself, and exhorted them 
in a loud voice to suffer patiently for heaven. 

The enraged Iroquois burned him with fire from head 
to foot, cut away his lower lip and jaw, and thrust a red- 
hot iron down his throat. He gave no sign or sound of 
pain. 

They placed Father Lalemant where Breboeuf could see 
him, with a strip of bark around his naked body. When 
Lalemantf saw the condition of his superior, he cried out. 
"We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to 
men," and threw himself at Breboeuf's feet. The Indians 

* "Jesuit Relation," 1641, p. 71. Breboeuf visits the Neuter nation east of the 
Niagara River, N. Y. State, with Father Chaumonot. Founding of the mission 
of the Angels. — Relation of Father Jerome Lalemant, who was sent from the 
residence of St. Mary among the Hurons, May 19, 1641, to Son- 
nontouon. The nation of the Iroquois was one day's journey from the last 
village of the Neuter nation in the East named Onguiaohra (Niagara), 
the same name as the river. — "Relation," 1641, p. 75. 

+ " Relation," 1648, p. 49. Bressani, "Abridged Relation." 

109 



then seized him, fastened him to a stake and set fire to the 
bark. On Father Breboeuf they placed a collar of red-hot 
hatchets, but he moved not an inch. They baptized him 
with hot water in mockery, and cut strips of flesh from 
his limbs and devoured them before his eyes. They said 
in mockery: "You told us that sufferings on earth make 
one happy in heaven; we wish to make you happy; we 
torment you because we love you; you ought to thank us 
for it." After revolting tortures they laid open his breast, 
drank his blood, and the chief tore out his heart and 
devoured it. Thus died Jean De Breboeuf, the founder of 
the Huron mission. Lalemant was tortured all night, and 
the Indians, weary of their cruel sport, in the morning 
killed him with a blow of their hatchet. Breboeuf had 
lived four hours under torture; Lalemant seventeen. 

New York had been visited by the French Jesuits in 1642. 
About forty years later it was again visited by the English 
Jesuits, in 1683, who bravely followed in the footsteps of 
their French brethren. Father Thomas Hervey, one of the 
English Fathers, embarked with Governor Dongan in the 
gunboat Warrick, and arrived at Nantasket in August, 
1683, and journeying overland with the Governor, reached 
New York before the end of Augfust. There is good ground 
for believing that Father Forster Gulick, Superior of the 
Maryland Jesuits, was then ready to receive him, as a 
baptism at Woodbridge, N. J., in 1683, is recorded, showing 
the presence of a priest. Concerning this mission of the 
English Fathers we have an interesting record. 

The English Provincial, Fr, Warner, writing to the Gene- 
ral of the Order, says, Feb. 26th, 1683: "Father Thomas 
Hervey,* the missionary passes to New York by consent of 
the Governor of the colony. In that colony is a respect- 
able city (i.e., N. Y.) fit for the foundation of a college, 
if faculties are given, to which college those who are scat- 
tered throughout Maryland may betake themselves and make 
excursions thence into Maryland. The Duke of York, the 
lord of that colony, greatly encourages the undertaking of a 

♦'Foley Records of the English Province," vii. p. 343. 



new mission. He did not consent to Father Thomas Her- 
vey's sailing, until he had advised with the provincial, the 
consultors and other grave Fathers." Father Henry Harrison 
and Father Charles Gage, with two lay brothers, joined Fr. 
Hervey in New York. Father Henry Harrison, although of 
an English family, was born in the Netherlands, and it was 
considered on that account he would be able to do more 
good among the Dutch. The Catholic chapel was in Fort 
James, south of Bowling Green, and this may be considered 
the place where Mass was first regularly said in New York. 
The first Latin school in New York was established by the 
Jesuit Fathers in 1683 on the property leased by Governor 
Fletcher to Trinity Church.* 

In 1683 the Latin school was attended by the sons of 
Judges Palmer and Graham, Captain Tudor and others. 
The bell that summoned the pupils to the Jesuit school was 
the bell of the Dutch Churchf in the Fort. Another school, 
called the " New York Literary Institute," was founded in 1809 
on the ground where the New York Cathedral now stands. 

The first legislative assembly convened in New York was 
that called by the Catholic Governor Dongan on October 
17th, 1683. The Bill of Rights was passed on the 30th. The 
spirit of this bill was probably suggested by the spiritual 
adviser of the Governor, the Jesuit Father Henry Harrison. 
Like the bill of Religious Rights and Freedom under Lord 
Baltimore, in Maryland, when the Jesuit Fr. Andrew White 
was one of his counsellors, it declared that religious freedom 
is recognized, and "no person or persons who profess faith 
in God by Jesus Christ, shall at any time be any ways 
molested, punished, disquieted or called in question for any 
difference of opinion or matter of religious concernment, 
who do not actually disturb the civil peace of the province." 
" The Christian churches of the province (the Catholic 
Church was one) are held and reputed as privileged churches 
and enjoy all their former freedom of their religion in 
divine worship and church discipline." These paragraphs 

* " New York Colonial Documents," iv. p. 490. 
t Brodhead, ii. p. 487. 



embodied in the United States Constitution are indirectly- 
traceable to the Fathers. 

During the brief reign of James II. no favorable move- 
ment for the Church took place. The fanatic Governor 
Leisler persecuted the Catholics, and in particular the 
Jesuits Hervey and Harrison. Fr. Hervey was obliged to 
abandon the mission of New York for a time. He returned 
to New York on foot with another Father and remained in 
the New York mission for some years, and died in Mary- 
land. Fr. Harrison returned to Ireland by way of France. 

The first Vicar General of the Church of the United 
States was the Jesuit Father Jerome Lalemant. In 1647 Fr, 
Jerome Lalemant, S.J., the Jesuit Missionary, was made 
Vicar General to the Most Rev. Francis De Harlay, Arch- 
bishop of Rouen, who had jurisdiction over the French 
Missions, which starting in Canada spread through the 
United States. As the Church increased throughout Maine, 
New York, Michigan and Wisconsin, the see of Rouen was 
recognized until the formation of a colony into a Vicariate.* 

About this time the Iroquois were making negotiations 
for peace. The Onondagas proposed conditions which were 
received by the Oneidas, Cayugas, and Mohawks, so that 
all but the Senecas were in accord. When the treaty was 
concluded it was necessary to have it ratified, according to 
the Iroquois custom. The envoy was to undertake the task 
which cost Fr. Jogues his life. A Jesuit was ready for 
the post of danger, and Fr. Simon Le Moyne, who had 
succeeded to the Indian name of Isaac Jogues, set out in 
July, 1654, and, sailing along the southern shore of Lake 
Ontario, baptized several Hurons, heard many confessions, 
and reached the Onondaga fort, where he was warmly 
welcomed. Fr. Le Moyne opened the solemn council with 
prayer in the Huron tongue, intelligfible to the Iroquois. 
He delivered nineteen presents, symbolic of so many propo- 
sitions. 

In reply, the Onondaga sachems urged him to settle on 
the banks of the lake, and they confirmed the peace. Fr. 

* Faillon, " Hist, de la Colonie Fgse.," i. p. 280, 



Le Moyne returned with two precious relics, the New Tes- 
tament that had belonged to Fr. Breboeuf and the prayer- 
book of Fr. Charles Gamier, both put to death by the 
Iroquois. His favorable report filled the colony with joy. 

The next step was to plant Christianity and civilization at 
Onondaga, and Frs. Joseph Chaumonot and Claude Dablon 
were received in pomp on the 5th of November by the 
sachems of the Onondagas and conducted to the cabin pre- 
pared for them. As it was Friday, they would not eat meat, 
but it was replaced by beaver and fish. The Indians told Fr, 
Chaumonot that the most pleasing news they could send to 
the Governor of Canada was, that they would provide as 
soon as possible for the chapel of the believers. The Fathers 
remained for some time caring for the sick, and they also 
visited the salt springs near Lake Ganentaa, near the pres- 
ent city of Syracuse, which had been selected as the site 
of the settlement. 

St. Mary's of Ganentaa was on the north side of Lake 
Onondaga in Onondaga County. The Onondaga village, 
where the chapel was erected, was twelve miles distant, 
two miles south of the present village of Manlius, south of 
Oneida Lake and east of Syracuse, Fr. Le Moyne' s account 
of the discovery of the salt springs was dubbed by the 
colonists a "Jesuit's lie." The profitable salt mines of 
Syracuse to-day prove the absolute truth of that Jesuit lie.''* 

Fr. Chaumonot's eloquent address on faith was the first 
presentation of the Christian religion to the Five Nations at 
their council fire. It was listened to with great attention, 
interrupted only by the applauding cries of the sachems and 
chiefs. How favorably it impressed them is seen by the 
fact that the very wampum belt of Fr. Chaumonot is still 
preserved among the treasures of the Iroquois League at 
Onondaga. In its picture writing, it symbolizes in wampum 
— man, led to the cross of Christ. 

On the 17th of March, 1656, Fr. Le Moynef established 
peace with the Mohawks, conferred baptism on captive 

♦Dablon, "Circular Letter, 1693"; Creuxis, "Relations," 1639-1697. 
+ 1656-7, " Journal des Jesuites." 

"3 



Christians and visited the Dutch settlement, and although 
received with courtesy, his account of the Salt Springs was 
doubted by the minister. When the church was dedicating 
the grand Temple of St. Peter's at Rome a bark chapel 
arose in the wilderness of Onondaga, consecrated to the 
patron of the missions, doubtless St. John the Baptist, the 
first chapel on the soil of New York. The chapel was too 
small. Reinforcements came with fifty Frenchmen under 
Mr. Dupuis with Fr. Dablon, Frs. Rene Menard and James 
Fremin, priests of the Society of Jesus, and two lay brothers. 
Setting out on the nth of July, by the end of August they 
had reared a regular chapel in the village of Onondaga 
more solid and larger than the chapel built the year before. 
In August, 1656, Frs. Chaumonot and Menard visited Cayuga, 
Gandagan, a Seneca town, and in spite of the foretold 
danger, preached to the people at Oneida. 

The Onondaga mission was so flourishing that they had 
three Sodalities of the Blessed Virgin, one Onondaga, one 
Huron and one of the Neutral Nation. 

All this time the lives of the missionaries hung by a 
thread. While Fr. Chaumonot was coming from Canada to 
Onondaga with a party of Hurons, nearly all were slain by 
the Onondagas, and although the missionary and lay brother 
reached Onondaga alive, they felt they were prisoners. The 
Mohawks and Oneidas roused the Onondagas to hostility 
against the French, and while Fr. Le Moyne was on the 
Mohawk, and the French and missionaries at Onondaga, the 
Oneidas slew and scalped three of the colony near Mont- 
real. The French settlers now thought only of escaping 
from their perilous position. They gave a great banquet, 
and when the sated Indians were asleep made their way 
down the Oswego to the lake and finally reached Quebec. 
This was the first Catholic settlement in New York, lasting 
from 1655 to 1658, which had built chapels in the Onondaga 
towns and among the Cayugas. In 1661 there were Catho- 
lics in Maine, on the Kennebec and Penobscot, by the shore 
of Lake Onondaga in New York, and in wigwams of the 
Senecas, south of Lake Ontario and east of Lake Erie. 

At the Synod of the clergy of New York held at Onon- 



daga August 26th, 1670, were assembled Frs. Fremin from 
Seneca, Carheil from Cayuga, Fr. Bruyas from Oneida, and 
Fr. Pierron from the Mohawk. 

It was Father James de Lamberville* who had the con- 
solation of finding at Gandagan the flower of Indian sanc- 
tity, Catherine Tega Kouita, niece of an hostile chieftain, 
and daughter of a Christian Algonquin woman. She was a 
lily of purity, and longed to be a Christian, but her shy- 
ness prevented her from addressing the missionary. But he, 
seeing the gifts with which she was endowed, invited her 
to the instructions at the chapel. Learning the catechism 
and attending faithfully to the exercise she was solemnly 
baptized on Easter, 1675, receiving the name of Catherine. 
"The Holy Ghost," says Fr. Chauchetiere, "directed her 
interiorly in all things, so that she pleased God and man, 
for the most wicked admired her, and the good found 
matter for imitation in her." 

In the years from 1668 to 1678 the labors of the Fathers 
among the Five Nations resulted in 2,221 baptisms. 

The most important missions besides those in Maine and 
New York State were those in the State of Maryland. It 
was in 1634 that the Jesuits began their first mission in 
Maryland when the Ark and the Dovef with the memorable 
colony of Lord Baltimore, accompanied by Father Andrew 
White, entered the Chesapeake, and where on the Feast of 
the Annunciation, 1634, Mass was said at St. Clement's Island, 
Maryland. At the town of St. Mary's an Indian village 
was taken possession of and one of the houses of bark was 
transferred into a Jesuit chapel. 

Thus began the city of St. Mary's, March 27th, 1634. 
"St. Mary's," says Davis, "was the home, the chosen home 
of the disciples of the Roman Church. The fact has been 
generally received. It has been sustained by the traditions 
of two hundred years and by volumes of written testimony, 
by the records of the courts, by the proceedings of the 
privy council, by the trial of law cases, by the wills and 

♦Chauchetiere, "Vie de Catherine Tega Kouita," N. Y., 1886. 
f'Relatio Itineris" of Father Andrew White. 

"5 



inventories, by the land records and rent rolls, and by 
the very names originally given to the towns and hamlets, 
to the creeks and rivulets, to the tracts and manors of the 
country. We mention St. Mary's City, St. Gregory's Point, 
St. Michael's Point, St. Thomas's, St. Inigoes." 

In 1632, Cecil, Lord Baltimore, having received a charter 
for the colonization of Maryland, began to gather round 
him those who were to form the new province. As the 
colonists were both Catholics and Protestants, each was left 
free to take its own clergymen. The Protestant colonists 
took no minister with them for several years after the 
colonies began. Lord Baltimore applied to the Jesuit 
General for Fathers for the English Catholics, but could 
oflEer the clergy no support, either from the non-Catholics, 
or from the Catholics or from the savages. 

The Jesuits did not shrink from a mission that presented 
such hardships. Other missionaries continued their labors, 
Fr. John Brock at St. Inigoes, Fr. Altham at Kent Island 
and Fr. PhiHp Fisher at the chapel of St. Mary's. Fr. 
Andrew White after his first labors moved to the new field 
one hundred and twenty miles from St. Mary's, and planted 
the cross at Kittamigundi, about fifteen miles south of 
Washington. Father Altham died of fever in 1640, and 
Father Brock followed him, after teaching the faith to the 
tribe of Indians destined to be brought into the true fold 
by the heroic trials of his life. A letter written by him 
shortly before his death shows the spirit of these mission- 
aries. When there was question of their recall, or of not 
receiving new help on the missions, he said : "In whatever 
manner it may seem good to his Divine Majesty to dispose 
of us, may His holy will be done. But as far as in me 
lies, I would rather labor in the conversion of the Indians, 
expiring on the bare ground deprived of all human succor 
and perishing with hunger, than think of abandoning this 
holy work of God from the fear of want. May God grant 
me the grace to render Him some service, and all the rest 
I leave to Divine Providence." 

Ingle, a pirate, having become a zealous Puritan, began 
the persecution of the Catholics, and Fathers White and 

116 



Copley were sent loaded with irons as criminals to England. 
Fr. Hartwell escaped the persecutors, and Fr. Roger Rigby 
and John Cooper escaped to Virginia. This was the first 
period of the Maryland mission. Catholicity had been 
planted in the colony, they had cared for the Indians along 
the Potomac, so that nearly all the Indians of these two 
peninsulas from the Potomac to the Piscataway, and from 
the Patuxent to the Mattapony were thoroughly instructed 
in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. Five of the 
priests had laid down their lives in the short space of two 
years, and two were sent to trial in chains. These splendid 
missions of Maryland have been so frequently written about 
that it would be needless to recount the details of the works 
that have given material for volumes. It will be sufficient here to 
refer to one more fact, that the first bishops of the United States 
were Jesuit Fathers. Father Carroll's friendship with the fra- 
mers of the Declaration of Independence as well as his dip- 
lomatic mission to Canada with Franklin and Chase in the 
interest of the colonies are worth noting in the history of the 
Church in connection with the Government of our country. 

From New York and Maryland, the course of events 
brings us to the States of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 

In 1743 Fr. Schneider crossed into New Jersey and ad- 
ministered baptism there near Salem. Before the end of 
the summer of that year he was giving missions near 
Bound Brook. 

It is probable that some Jesuit visited Pennsylvania in the 
early days of the colony. This visit would explain the absurd 
report that "William Penn was dead and died a Jesuit." 
In August, 1683, Penn writes: "I find some persons have 
had so little wisdom and so much malice as to report my 
death, and to mend the matter, dead, and a Jesuit, too. 
I am still alive, and no Jesuit." The visit of a reputed 
priest to Penn when ill, would give rise to such stories. 

During the last part of the reign of Charles II., Fr. 
Michael Forster continued the work of the mission. He 
had with him Fr. Francis Pennington. The first permanent 
mission was in 1733, when Rev. Mr. Crayton, a priest of 
the Order of Jesuits, purchased lots near Fourth Street, 



Philadelphia, between Walnut and Willing' s Alley, and erected 
thereon a small chapel dedicated to St. Joseph, which has 
since been enlarged, the now famous St. Joseph's Church 
of Willing's Alley. In 1757, under the care of four Fathers, 
Robert Harding, Theodore Schneider, Ferdinand Farmer and 
Matthias Manners, there were in all 1365 Catholics. The 
mission stations attended from this centre were several 
stations in Maryland, among them Frederick, and St. Joseph's, 
Philadelphia ; Goshenhoppen, Lancaster, and Conewago in 
the state itself. 

After glancing at the three great periods of the missions 
in Maine, New York, and Maryland, we resume our tracing 
of the progress of the missions in Virginia, down the coast 
to Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. 

Although the French missionary, Fr. Pierron, had visited 
Virginia in 1674, missionaries to Virginia had been sent 
from the Spanish mission of Florida as early as 1568. 
Philip II. had asked St. Francis Borgia, the general of the 
Jesuits, to send twenty-four of his religious to found this 
Florida mission. He chose Fr. Peter Martinez, Fr, John 
Rogel, and Brother Francis de Vilareal. On the way to 
Havana Fr. Martinez landed, and while journeying to the 
Spanish port was slain by the Indians at Tacatacurn, New 
Cumberland, not far from the mouth of the St. John's 
River. Fr. Rogel* remained at Havana and studied the 
language of the Indians of Southern Florida. He remained 
as Chaplain until 1568, when Fr. John Baptist Segura, 
S.J.,t came with nine missionaries to Florida. Fr. Ledeno 
with Brother Baez went to Guale, now Amelia Island, and 
he may be regarded as the pioneer priest of Georgia. Here 
Fr. Baez prepared a grammar and a catechism for the in- 
struction of Indian neophytes. Fr. Rogel in 1569 repaired 
to the port of St. Helena, or Port Royal Harbor, and 
thus became the first resident priest in South Carolina. 

In spite of meagre results from their labors, the mission- 
aries continued their toil in Florida. In 1570 Fr. Segura 

♦Tanner, "Societas militans, " p. 445. 

t Tanner, "Societas militans," p. 447. 

X18 



resolved to found a new mission with Fr. Luis de Quiros 
and Brothers Solis, Mendez, Redorido, Linares, Gabriel 
Gomez and Sanchez Zerallos. They sailed from St. Helena 
August 5th, 1570, to St. Mary's Bay, and ascended the 
Potomac. On the 12th of August they were on the Rap- 
pahannock and settled there until February. Deserted by 
the vessel and by the Indian guide, Don Luis de Velasco, 
Fr. Quiros with Solis and Mendez set out to urge Velasco 
to return. Instead of returning according to their wishes, 
Velasco with a number of Indians attacked the party and 
slew them with arrows. The traitors then attacked the 
settlement and slew Fr. Segura with the implements that 
had been surrendered. The first martyrs on the soil of 
Virginia were the Jesuit missionaries. 

In 1743, other Spanish missionaries, among them the 
Jesuit Fathers Joseph Mary Umaco and Joseph Xavier de 
Mana, sailed from Havana to found a mission in Southern 
Florida. A Catholic mission was founded, and the Indians 
kept their faith till the Seminole War, when they were 
transported to Indian territory. 

While the tide of time was carrying his Jesuit brethren 
along the shores of the Atlantic, by the Gulf of Mexico, 
and along the Pacific Ocean, the tide of the great inland 
rivers brought the illustrious Father Marquette out on the 
broad bosom of the Mississippi, and crowned him with the 
glory of being its discoverer. 

In the "Jesuit Relations" sent by Fr. Dablon, Superior 
of the missions of the Jesuits, from Quebec in 1673-1674, we 
read the following account of the discovery : 

"At Ouatouiais,* M. JoUiet joined Fr. Marquette, f who was 
awaiting him there, and who had contemplated the enter- 
prise for some time, as they had planned together about it. 
They started with five other Frenchmen in June, 161 3, to 
enter a country where no other Europeans had ever set foot. 
Starting from the Bay of "Puants," 43° 40', they sailed 
one hundred and eighty miles on a little river, very 
sweet and very pleasant towards the west and southwest. 

* Ouatouiais = Ottawa. 

t " Jesuit Relations," 1673-1674 ; " Relations Inddites," i. pp. 193-204, ii. p. S39-339. 



They found the portage they wished, about a mile and a 
half in width, by which they passed to another river coming 
from the northwest, and having travelled one hundred and 
twenty miles to the southwest, on the 15th of June they 
found themselves at latitude forty-two degrees and a half, 
and entered happily the famous river which the Iroquois 
called the Mississippi, which means "great river." It comes, 
according to the Iroquois, from the very far north. It is 
beautiful, and for the most part a quarter of a league wide. 
It is much larger in those places where it is cut by islands, 
which, however, are rare." 

The dream of Fr. Marquette's life was accomplished. He 
had reached the greatest of the western rivers, and named 
it the Immaculate Conception. He sailed down it for one 
week, until he came upon Indian trails, which along the 
shore he followed till he came to the village. Fr. Mar- 
quette greeted the inhabitants, and asked who they were. 
"We are the Illinois," they replied. He was escorted to a 
cabin where an aged Indian welcomed them, saying, "How 
beautiful is the sun, O Frenchmen, when thou comest to 
visit us ! All our town awaits thee, and thou shalt enter 
all our cabins in peace." 

Warned of the danger of going on in their perilous jour- 
ney, they were not deterred. On they sailed, passing the 
Ohio River, the Missouri, on into the land of the Senecas. 
Near the Arkansas River they were surrounded by the Me- 
tchigenicas. When their mission was made known, they 
were kindly received, and referred to the Arkansas Indians. 
The great question was here solved, and it was made cer- 
tain that the Mississippi emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. 

On the 17th of July they paddled back to the Illinois 
River, and, ascending it, they reached Lake Michigan, and 
arrived at Green Bay in September. 

In 1674 Fr. Marquette started for a mission among the 
Kaskaskias, and founded a mission among the Illinois in 
1675. Here, growing seriously ill, he started for Lake 
Michigan, but perceiving that he could not reach the mis- 
sion, he landed and prepared for death. Calling around him 
his attendants, with the names of Jesus and Mary on his 



lips, he expired about midnight, May 19th, 1675. His re- 
mains, which had been placed in the church at Michili 
Mackinac, were discovered by Fr. Edward Jacker, in 1877, 
at Point St. Ignace. 

Not only in the Northwest and Central States, but in the 
far western plains of Arizona we find the great work of 
the missions flourishing. And extraordinary as were the 
labors of Frs. Marquette, White, Fremin, Bruyas and Druil- 
lets, those of Fr. Eusebius Kuhn or Kino stand with the 
Franciscan missionary, Ven. Anthony Margil, as the greatest 
who have labored in this country.* 

Clavigero, in his history, tells us that Father Kino 
travelled more than twenty thousand miles, and baptized 
more than forty-eight thousand infants and adults. He 
learned the Indian languages, translated their catechisms, 
formed vocabularies for his successors, built houses and 
chapels, founded missions and towns, and reconciled natives. 
In Upper Pimeria he had 176 houses. After untold labors, 
he died in 171 1. In 1731, three Jesuit Fathers came to the 
mission of San Xavier del Bac, Ignatius X. Keler, Fr. John 
Bap. Grashofer and Fr. Philip Segener. In 1744, Fr. Keler 
had baptized more than two thousand, and had one thou- 
sand brave, industrious Pimas, who possessed well-tilled fields 
with herds and flocks. 

It was the revival in the territory of the United States 
of the great achievements of the Reductions of Paraguay 
in South America. 

These missions of Arizona and lower California were 
begun by the Spanish Jesuit Fathers, and only when they 
were recalled by the Spanish government did they leave 
their work to be carried on by Father Junipero Serra, 
O.S.F., in upper California, who, by the systematic provi- 
sion of the Fathers, was enabled to continue with marvel- 
lous success those great missions that have been productive 
of such glory to God. 

Ascending the Pacific Slope from the Spanish missions we 
reach the territory that is now lower California. The Jesuits 

* Verregas, " Hist. California," i. 188 ; Clavigero, " Hist, of California," 
ii. 176. 



first entered California on February 5th, 1697. There Fr. 
John Maria Salvatierra began the famous missions of lower 
California, and with the co-operation of the glorious co- 
workers, Fathers Kino, Ugarte, and Brau, pushed their work 
northward to the southern boundary of the present State of 
California. 

Nearly one hundred years later, in 1768, Fr. Junipero 
Serra, the great Franciscan missionary, celebrated for his 
heroic labors in California, succeeded to the work, when the 
Society of Jesus, extinguished in the Spanish Dominions, 
was forced to withdraw from the fields of their labors 
which they had undertaken with such hardships and toil, 
and carried forward with such marvellous success. 

The missions in California were again resumed by the 
Jesuit Fathers in 1850. The founders of this new mission 
were Frs. Accolti and Nobili, who had been Indian mis- 
sionaries with Fr. De Smedt in the Rocky Mountains and 
in Oregon and among the Indians on the Columbia River. 

The first council of Baltimore in 1829 in its fifth decree 
asked the Holy See that the Indians dwelling beyond the 
limits of fixed dioceses in the United States should be con- 
fided to the care of the Society of Jesus. 

The Propaganda solemnly approved this decree, and this 
homage of the American hierarchy to the Society of Jesus 
was a new tribute to their zeal, and a testimony that the 
work of the Jesuits was not confined to the glorious mis- 
sions of China, Japan, India, and South America, but that their 
zeal had borne fruit worthy of their ancestors among the 
native tribes of the United States. It would take too long 
to follow these Indian missions of the interior of the United 
States. The memory of the Apostolic work of Fr. De 
Smedt among the Indians on the reservations, his travels 
through the whole of the interior, his dwelling among the 
red-men, his influence in peace and war ; their veneration and 
love for the black gown — these details have filled volumes, and 
are fresh in the minds of all. The testimony of travellers 
and statesmen alike unite in giving evidence of the un- 
paralleled work of the Jesuits among the Indians. The 
work of Fr. De Smedt in the interior has been nobly imita- 



ted by the Rocky Mountain missionaries as well as by the 
newly founded mission of Alaska. All these works carried 
on up to our own days, and going back more than two 
centuries, show the untiring zeal that has been exercised on 
these missions. 

To take at random some of the work of recent years we 
need only mention that in 1842 in Montana, there were 
among the Indians 16,500 confessions, 15,000 communions, 
125 baptisms ; and in Idaho and Washington Territory, 
15,500 confessions, 12,800 communions, and 166 baptisms. 

During this period of two centuries of the Jesuit missions, 
the history of which reads as a page of thrilling interest, 
many laid down their lives for their work. The Jesuits 
who were put to death within the present limits of the 
United States were nineteen in number. 

The list is as follows : 

Fr. Peter Martinez, who was killed by the Indians near 
St. Augustine, Fla., on Sept. 28, 1566. He was born at 
Calda in Spain, on Oct. 15, 1533. 

Father Louis de Quiros, a Spaniard, Bros, Gabriel de 
Solis, John Baptist Mendez, an Indian novice, were massacred 
by the Indians near the Rappahannock, Virginia, February 

3, 1571- 

Fr. John Baptist de Segura, of Toledo, Bros. Gabriel 
Gomez, Peter de Linares, Sancho Zevallos, Spaniards, and 
Christopher Rodundo, an Indian novice, were massacred 
by the Indians on the banks of the Rappahannock, Virginia, 
February 8, 15 71. 

Brother Gilbert du Thet, killed by the English, who were 
making an attack on Fort St. Saviour, Mt. Desert Island, 
Maine, December, 1613. 

Bro. Rene Goupil, born in Augin, put to death by the 
Iroquois in the Mohawk Valley near Albany, N. Y., Sept. 
29, 1642. 

Fr. Isaac Jogues, put to death by the Iroquois near 
Auriesville station, on the West Shore Railroad, not far 
from Albany, N. Y., October 16, 1646. 

Fr. Sebastian Rale, put to death by the English colonists 
at Norridgewock, Maine, August 23, 1724. 

1S3 



Fr. Paul du Poisson, of Champagfne, killed by the Natchez 
tribe, Mississippi, November 28, 1729, at Natchez. 

Fr. John De Smedt, Province of Champagne, killed by the 
Yazoo tribe, Mississippi, not far from Vicksburg, December 
II, 1729. 

Fr. Peter Aulneau, Province of France, killed by the 
Sioux, at Lake of the Woods, Minnesota, June 6, 1763. 

Fr. Anthony Henat, Province of France, put to death by 
the Chicksaws, Mississippi, Pentotoc County, March 26, 1736. 

Fr. John Deguerre, killed by the Illinois Indians, date 
unknown. 

Fr. Claude Virot, killed by the Iroquois in the Genesee 
Valley, New York, July, 1759. 

Thus by their blood have the members of the Society of 
Jesus proved their love for their country, that for nearly 
two centuries and a half has been the witness of their 
noble lives, their unceasing labors and their heroic deaths. 
Not only by toil in the forest and by the sea, on the river 
and on the prairie, but in the heart of our great cities, where 
disease and misery and woe have found a dwelling, there 
will be found the Jesuit missionary leading a life scarcely 
less heroic than his historic brethren. The Insane Asylum 
on Blackwell's Island, New York, the Penitentiary, the Charity 
Hospital, Ward's Island, Randall's Island, North Brother Island, 
the hospital for infectious diseases, each of these is the 
chosen place of labor for the Jesuit Father of to-day, no 
less than the city prisons, with which the name of the Jesuit 
Fr. Duranquet, as the friend of the friendless criminal at 
the gallows, will ever be inseparably linked. 

The work of the Society of Jesus in the United States 
has not been confined to the Indian missions. In nearly every 
chief city in the United States there is a church or college 
of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus that wields an in- 
fluence on higher education, and whose spiritual life is felt 
pulsating through the whole city. These colleges and 
churches we find in Boston, Worcester, New York and Phila- 
delphia, in Baltimore, Washington and Cincinnati, m Cleve- 
land, St. Louis, Chicago and Milwaukee, in Omaha, Kansas 
City and Denver, in Mobile, New Orleans and Galveston, 



in Spokane, Santa Clara, and San Francisco, as well as in 
the northeast in Detroit and Buffalo. 

The number of students in the Jesuit colleges of the 
United States in 1882-3 was 5,794, and may safely average 
now some two thousand more, with a standard of scholarship 
inferior to no college or university in the country. 

To complete the picture already drawn in outline of the 
missionary labors, we have to refer to the new missionary 
fields of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus in Alaska. 
The missions in Alaska cover an immense field. The area 
is one-sixth of the whole United States. Over this district 
are scattered a number of devoted missionaries, assisted by 
lay brothers of the Society of Jesus under the care of Rev. 
Fr. Tosi, S.J., recently appointed Vicar Apostolic. They 
have taken up the work for which the devoted Bishop Se- 
ghers, who had intended to join the Society of Jesus, had laid 
down his life. Their missions do not lie merely along the route 
of tourists, but are in the remote solitude of the desolate, 
untravelled interior. Communication with the civilized world 
is had but once a year, and the life of the missionary is 
almost one unbroken journey. 

Their courage, amid terrible hardships, with frozen fish 
and seal oil for food, intense cold, and many privations, is 
kept alive by the remembrance of the tireless labors of their 
heroic brethren : Jogues, Breboeuf, Lalemant, Segura, White, 
and De Smedt, who lived and toiled that their fellow men 
in the missions of America might learn the knowledge and 
love of Jesus Christ. 

Even from a utilitarian point of view, the only one that 
sends out its convictions to the minds of many men, the 
United States is not without its debt of gratitude. For, as 
in the missions of South America, the Jesuits made known 
the medical properties of quinine, discovered the properties 
of India rubber and vanilla; brought from Tartary to 
Europe the rhubarb plant, and from China the turkey ; in- 
troducing into Europe the camelia flower and the art of 
dyeing and printing cotton, not less remarkable in North 
America and the United States were their contributions to 
science and civilization. They were the first to call atten- 

las 



tion to the great Falls of Niagara as far back as 1647. 
The first exptorers of the northern lakes and rivers, they 
prepared the way for subsequent discoveries, and Fr. Alba- 
nel succeeded in accomplishing what soldiers and explorers 
had not the courage to undertake — the making of a road 
from Quebec to Hudson Bay. They were the first to make 
candles from the wild laurel, wine from the native grape, 
incense from the gum tree. They drew attention to the 
cotton plant and mulberry tree of the Mississippi. They 
brought the sugar cane from New Orleans ; first planted the 
peach in Illinois and the wheat upon the prairies. They 
were the first to open the copper mines, as well as to 
make New York acquainted with her valuable salt springs. 
But all these things were but on their way to bring to the 
souls of men the knowledge of the greater glory of God. 

We have been able to take only a brief glance at a work 
of heroism that is coeval with the infancy of our Republic. 
But the remembrance of these names, and the briefest idea 
of some of their labors, sufferings and achievements, which 
it would take volumes to worthily relate, will be sufficient 
to arouse a thrill of enthusiasm and gratitude that our land has 
been blessed by the presence of men of such noble courage. 

We have but to recall New York, and the Jesuit names 
Jogues and Le Moyne are indelibly written, in martyrs' 
blood, upon the pages of her early history. Michigan sends 
out the name of Marquette, the waters of Lake Superior 
will ever murmur the name of AUouez, and those of the 
Illinois River that of Charles Garnier. Wisconsin speaks of 
Fr. Seigus, while the Miami Indians, the Choctaws, the Ala- 
bamas, the Susquehannas, the Abnakis and the Hurons have 
treasured up with the history of their tribes, the memory of 
the black gown, Fathers Stradis, BouUanger, de Syresme, 
White, Rale and Lalemant, the heroes of the early missions. 

While we recall the memory of Columbus at this centen- 
nial celebration, as we turn over the pages of history of the 
last two hundred and fifty years, we find on almost every 
page the names of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, as mis- 
sionaries, martyrs, explorers and educators, impressed indelibly 
upon the annals of the History of the United States of America, 

126 



THE FRANCISCAN PAPER, 



th; 



■be woPl) K r R A 11 (»K 'CO-I.-UMBUS. 

^ iM-uni t,ht; \Ytx.deui published at Basle in 1.575.111 the work 

now V •'' J*^"^?'^^^^'^^"' -^it^hbishop of Nocera, "Elogia Viroruni 

the n'.^^\®-^f*?^i;^'^^^"^^- ^llustrium," containing the portraits of i2(^ 
, ,.^ celebrated, persons, with biographies. 

„.... .ju- /^.v- P"'"^^^*^^.'^^,'^^ engraved from paintings in the gallery 
i...r.r;iie'^'".f??*:\ Af^hbisjiop. in,,h^s villa, 01^ the banks of Lake Coni(i. 
taciific^" which in 1552 and 1579 artists were sent respectivelv bv 

The ^--cf ;^W*- *?'■ ^^efli^' and Ferdinand of Austria to copy the 
jjj,^,^^-.,portjrai1f^ .of Columbus. Five pictures now existing are su])- 
thk- .Pt)sed , to . ,be the originals and copies, viz.; the Altissinio, 
th; . ,I^lofeuce,,, the Yanez in the National Library, Madrid, the 
si T'uriJ^^"'^^-^:.,^" .*^^ Queen's library, Madrid, the portrait in the 
^^ town hail, jCogoleto, and that recently discovered and in the 

th possession of . Dr. Orchi of Como. The Royal Academy of 

J)!-.-.. ^ f^i^tory a,t Macl^ri^ (1862) held this to be the most ancient 
Aij! ri '^"^ ii.uthentic,,, likenesis of Columbus in existence. It is 

The ^"l-^P'^^'^4 to, h^ve , been painted from life after Columbus 
,j,. :,,,,r.eturnQd from hi« second voyage (1496). as the costume 
:.' ii^re^^wifh. the description of Andrea Bernaldez, the curate 

in tae"lpkkl^fe!?.'^',: "T^^ admiral arrived at Castile.. His dress 
and A^'l?ic,f^oi!^%iV:^^'P'^. ^^-^^^ ^^ ^^^t worn by monks of St. 
CO'- - ''Ff"9**^'i ^P4. i" shape somewhat similar to the robes of that 
til!. . />^^er, and with the rope of .St. Francis around his waist 
"he F ''"^ '■^^*" sake of devotion." 



THE ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS IN AMERICA. 



}]HE limits of Christianity and civilization are iden- 
tical. Without Christianity we have no civiliza- 
tion, and the Christian religion has been the 
chief factor in producing the stupendous spectacle 
presented to the world to-day in the exuberant growth, 
vitality, and grandeur of the continent disclosed by the 
discoveries of Columbus. The whole of the New World 
now worships the name of Christ, and this, together with 
the material prosperity arising from that fact, is due to the 
labors of the missionaries who made their appearance simul- 
taneously with the conquerors, but, unlike them, were 
impelled only by the unselfish spirit of labor, charity, and 
sacrifice. 

The desire to carry the treasure of Faith to unknown 
nations actuated Columbus and those who aided him, and 
this zeal, with the additional desire to be the promoters of 
the splendid advantages of civilization, inspired the mis- 
sionaries. While the conquerors, for their own advantage, 
sought the subjugation of the tribes, the missionaries taught 
them the dignity and equality of the human race, and thus 
prepared them for the freedom and development with which 
America impresses the world to-day. 

The Order of St. Francis took an important part in these 
beginnings of the moral and religious regeneration of the 
New World, and the acknowledgment of this fact is found 
in the special congratulations sent to the Order by Spain 
and America on this occasion of the centenary of the dis- 
covery of Columbus. Spain has willed the restoration of 
the Convent of La Rabida, near Palos, to the custody of 
the Franciscans, who had been banished by the revolution. 
It was here that Columbus, poor and an exile, found shelter 
and the most liberal hospitality at the hands of the Fran- 



ciscan Fathers, and it was Father Giovanni Perez and Father 
Antonio di Marchena who took his cause up to the Court 
of Spain, and overcame all obstacles to the acceptance of 
his proposals. 

It appears also from authentic documents that on his first 
voyage he was accompanied by his spiritual director, Father 
Bernardo Monticastri, of Todi, of the Osservanti of St. 
Francis. The histories of the Order are almost unanimous 
in stating that, upon his second voyage, he was accom- 
panied by Father Giovanni Perez, to whom, with all the 
other priests who took part in that expedition, must be 
conceded the honor of having first celebrated Mass in the 
New World. 

But whatever the fact may be with respect to those mis- 
sionaries, history proclaims the labors of the Franciscan 
Fathers Giovanni Borgagnone and Giovanni de Tisni, who 
mastered, in less than a year, the Macroix language, the 
most diflScult in the Island of Spain, preached to those 
tribes, and gave them the precious gift of the Christian 
religion. Treated with consideration by Caonabo, the fierce 
savage chief of Magua, they converted a number of natives, 
and when the friendly relations between him and the 
Spaniards terminated, they passed into the kingdom of 
Guariones and succeeded in maintaining his good will to 
Spain. The last voyage of Columbus cost the life of a 
Franciscan friar, named Alexander, who died at sea, and, 
had he not been preceded by Father Monticastri, would 
have been the first to sacrifice his Hfe for the redemption 
of the New World. 

In the expedition of Ovando (1500) seventeen Franciscan 
missionaries (thirteen priests and four lay-brothers) started 
for America. They were : Alonzo di Espinar, Bartolomeo 
di Turnegano, Antonio di Carrion, Francesco di Portogallo, 
Antonio de Martyribus, Masseo da Gatra, Pietro di Orna- 
cinelo, Bartolomeo di Siviglia, Giovanni di lunocosa, Alonso 
di Ornacimelos, Giovanni di Escalante, Giovanni and Pietro 
(Frenchmen), priests, and Giovanni Martin, Luca Sanchez, 
Pietro Martinez, and another, whose name is not known, 
the lay-brothers. Many others besides set out for America, 



so that at the Council of the Osservanti, m 1506, the Fran- 
ciscan province of the Holy Cross was constituted in the 
Island of Spain, with the very notable remark, ''Ad qiiain 
Fratres qjiotidie navigant, ubi fidem et religionein non 
cessant propagare ;" and we also know that three French 
brothers were sent in 1511, and twenty-two more in Decem- 
ber of the same year, under the personal conduct of the 
renowned Father Domenico Torres, General Commissary of 
the Order. Eight more followed in 151 3, and the province 
of the Holy Cross had convents in St. Domingo, Concep- 
tion, and Darien. 

The unselfish and civilizing labor of the missionaries con- 
trasted strongly with the cruelty of the conquerors and 
gold hunters, who treated the natives like beasts of burden 
and made them instrumental to the gratification of the 
most brutal passions. An inextinguishable hatred sprang 
up between Spaniards and Indians in spite of the concili- 
atory efforts of the missionaries, who, however, met with 
the fiercest obstacles, and, while fearlessly defending the 
cause of the latter against the Europeans, were often put 
to death by those whom they sought to protect. 

In 1 516 the Franciscans went from the islands to the 
mainland, and founded a convent on the coast of Paria, 
near the island of Cubagna, of which Friar Giovanni Garces 
became vicar. Here they gathered the native children, 
teaching them to read and write, and all went on pros- 
perously until the inhumanity of the conquerors ruined 
the civilizing work of the missionaries, causing sanguinary 
revolts and still more sanguinary reprisals. But this is the 
unvarying history of the American missions: on the one 
hand the priests sacrificing themselves to raise the tribes 
to the highest moral and intellectual level of the Europeans, 
and on the other, the conquerors striving only to gratify 
their greed for gold, ambition and glory, at the expense of 
their fellow-men, whom they enslaved and degraded to tools 
and instruments. But the religious and civilizing work of 
the missionaries prevailed, and to that fact, and to the 
efforts which originated in the labor of the Franciscans, 
who sowed the first seed and set the example of self- 



denial and martyrdom, is due the Christianity of the Ameri- 
can people and their first claim to a larger share of manly 
dignity than most nations of the globe can boast to-day. 

After the first missions in the Isle of Spain and the 
islands successively discovered until the continent was 
reached, the first place where the apostolate of the Fran- 
ciscans was established, afterwards followed by other 
religious Orders, with a truly prodigious success, was Mexico, 
discovered and conquered by Cortez between 1518 and 1524. 
It was the scene of the missions of Giovanni di Testo, Giovanni 
d'Aora, Pietro of Ghent (from Flanders), and afterwards of the 
venerable Martino da Valenza — a man of extraordinary 
virtue, commander of a numerous phalanx of Franciscan 
missionaries. 

Cortez himself received them and presented them to the 
Mexicans with the following words: "The almighty God of 
heaven and earth sends us these holy men as apostles from 
the Only God. They are the objects of my veneration and 
that of the monarch obeyed by all Spain. Believe me, 
they have no desire for your riches — they only wish to save 
your souls. They had lands and treasures, but renounced 
them, wishing only to obtain those heavenly treasures which 
last forever. They come to open your eyes to the vanity 
of your idols and to teach you the true religion. The 
perils of a long voyage did not deter them, and they are 
ready to endure a thousand deaths in order to gain the 
salvation of your immortal souls. Yes, it is Christian charity 
which induced them to leave their country to come and 
deliver you from the awful slavery of the demons, to give 
you true freedom — the inheritance of God's children — and to 
teach you no longer to offer to your Creator abominable sac- 
rifices, but the Immaculate Victim, the Lamb of God, sacri- 
ficed for the salvation of the world. We have sent for 
these venerable men so that they might become your healers 
with the true faith, instructors of your children, protectors 
of your country, and a guaranty of our good will towards 
you." 

Subsequent events more than justified these words. The 
missionaries established four principal stations in the immense 



Mexican territory, viz. : Mexico, Tezcuco, Tlaxcala, and 
Guaxoringo, founding churches, hospitals, convents and 
missions, laboring for the regeneration of the country, which 
in truth they obtained as soon as their ministry was un- 
fettered. Their voices were heard in every comer of the 
land, and numerous communities were founded. Missions 
were established in the province of Mexico, evangelizing the 
whole valley of Toluca during the reign of Michoacan, 
Guatilan, Tula and Xilotepec as far as Meztitlan ; in the 
provinces of Tezcuco, Otumba, Tepepulco, Tulancingo, and 
as far as the ocean; in the province of Tlaxcala, Tacatlan, 
and in all the mountains which on that side extended to 
the ocean, besides the extensive territories of Zarape and all 
the country bounded by the Alvarado ; and in the provinces 
of Guaxoringo, Tholula, Tepiaca, Tecamacalco, the whole of 
Mixtecu, Guacachla and Quietla — in short among a multitude 
of people presenting an endless variety of nature, custom 
and language. 

Expeditions followed each other like the waves of the 
sea, and soon a network was stretched out covering every 
inch of ground. Seventy convents (the centres of their work) 
and almost countless missions, besides two custodies, were 
erected together with the independent provinces of Michoacan, 
Guatemala and Yucatan. In sixteen years, from 1524 to 
1540, six million souls were saved for Christ. 

With the venerable Martino da Valenza, the first pastor 
of Mexico, who left behind him the name of Saint and 
wonder-worker, may be mentioned his fellow-missionary, the 
celebrated Father Giovanni di Zumarraga, who was the 
first bishop of Mexico, and who held the flattering though 
difficult rank of protector of the Indies. For sixteen years 
his life was that of an apostle; of eminent virtues, not only 
as bishop, but as a religious ; humble, poor, affectionate, untir- 
ing as in the first years of his cloistral life. 

Within a few years the last vestiges of the Teocalli (the 
towers upon which human beings were sacrificed) disap- 
peared, and with them the monstrous idols of the Aztecs, 
and, unfortunately, the hieroglyphic manuscripts kept with 
them; but the missionaries and new converts helped to 



repair the loss of the latter by the precious and abundant 
notes on the Aztec institutions collected and transmitted to 
us from the most authentic sources. Father Satragim, more 
than all his fellow-workers, rendered large services to history. 
But their labors so prospered in all directions that they 
could rejoice at the conversion of nine million natives 
before twenty years of their mission had passed. 

From Mexico they crossed into Michoacan, where in 1535 
they established a regular Custody, erected into a Province in 
1575, with more than fifty convents, extending over the 
kingdom of Xatisco and New Gallizia. The first missionary 
to those territories was Father Martino of Jesus, a man of 
extraordinary virtue. He was followed by many others 
whose names alone wotdd fill a volume. 

In 1534 Father Jacopo da Testera, with four companions, 
inaugurated the missions of Yucatan, reaping a splendid 
harvest of converts. Other prominent missionaries were: 
Father Louis of Villalpando, a friar of great literary ability 
and profound learning, who was the first to learn the 
language of the country, and who compiled a grammar 
and vocabulary of it; friar Lorenzo da Bienvenida, Francisco 
da Bustamante, Diego di Landa and CogoUudo, the two 
latter being the first historians of the territory. All these 
followed the tracks of the Indians to inhospitable retreats 
where they were dispersed, and taught them the advantages 
of living a civilized life in communities; gaining their 
hearts by loving solicitude to such a degree that they 
became inseparable, the Indians following them as a shep- 
herd is followed by his flock, and refusing to be consoled 
when robbed by death of their pastors. 

The first dioceses were established in Yucatan (as in 
Mexico) by the Franciscan Fathers Giovanni di Porto, Fran- 
cisco Toral and Father Landa, whose names were perpet- 
ually blessed. Father Landa, a man of austere and severe 
character, acquired incomparable distinction by the hardships 
he endured travelling through the whole province like an 
apostle, preaching, catechising, baptizing, collecting the 
Indians from the mountains into civilized settlements, and 
finally defending them with iron resolution against the 



extortions of the barbarous conquerors. It was a struggle 
for life against the conquerors on the one hand and against 
the natives on the other, whom he reproved for their 
idolatry, breaking up their pagan worship, and venturing 
for that purpose into the thickest forests where he knew they 
resorted for that purpose. 

With all his austerity he was tender of heart, and with 
God's help easily overcame the most terrible obstacles. 
One day presenting himself, cross in hand, to the Ganduli 
in Yokvitz, he proclaimed that the reign of Satan must 
end. The Indians at first were resentful and laid their 
hands upon their bows, but his voice, his look and some- 
thing supernatural which seemed to hover about his face 
and his whole person conquered them, and they threw 
themselves at his feet. 

His death was touching and saintlike. Always robed in 
accordance with the strict rule of the Franciscans, he 
presented, during his last illness, a spectacle which for 
edification has never been surpassed. He wished to be 
surrounded by his fellow-workers — of whom he styled him- 
self the lowest and most unworthy — clothed to the end in 
the sacred tunic which he had never taken off and holding 
the crucifix in his hands. The chief people from all parts 
came to see him, and marvelled to see the famous apostle 
and pastor in such an attitude of penitence. No one was 
able to restrain his tears. In dying, his face, which through 
hardships, journeys and fasting had become hollow and 
attenuated, took on the rosy hue of health. Hardly able to 
speak above a whisper, an enormous assemblage crowded to 
ask his blessing and to kiss his feet. The desolate Indians 
ran here and there crying out: " Our father is dead! 
Who will be our comforter ? Oh, beloved father, with thee 
we have lost every consolation ! " 

In 1539 tt^6 Franciscans had established flourishing missions 
in Guatemala. Father Alonso of Casa-Seca and his com- 
panions were the first missionaries. Wonders were wrought 
by the renowned Father Torribio Motolinin and by Pietro 
da Belanzos, who mastered the difficult and almost unpro- 
nounceable language of the natives, compiling a grammar 

13s 



and dictionary which were afterwards perfected by Father 
Francesco della Parra. This made it possible to establish 
the regular province of the Holy Name of Jesus, which 
is considered, for its missionary work, one of the most glorious 
of the Order. 

The expedition of Narvaez to Florida in 1528, to take 
possession of that country in the name of the Spanish 
crown, cost unnumbered sufferings and many victims, among 
them the glorious friar Giovanni Juarez, and yielded appar- 
ently but a meagre harvest of baptisms and transient im- 
pressions. But good seed is never lost, and the four 
missionaries who escaped death in this unfortunate campaign 
and returned looking less like men than skeletons from the 
grave, roused universal admiration and stimulated other 
priests to the task. The Italian Marco of Nice, taking for 
guide a negro, one of the survivors of the Narvaez band, 
ventured to explore the fateful country. Acting upon his 
instructions, the expedition of Coronado was undertaken. In 
it Father Giovanni of Padilla fell a victim to the savages, 
for love of whom he had confronted so many hardships. He 
was not the only victim, but finally, after repeated efforts, 
what the combined efforts of so many had failed to accom- 
plish was effected in the year 1547 by a single servant of 
God, Father Andrew of Olmos. 

He had already labored in the New World with splendid 
results. With the help of other companions he established 
missions in Tampico and crossed over into the territory of 
the ferocious Chichimechi (the present Texas), where he first 
familiarized himself with the language, of which he compiled 
the first grammar and dictionary, and, being sustained by 
extraordinary virtues, subdued the savages, who were more 
like beasts than men, initiated them into the true Faith and 
civilized practices, and founded a flourishing mission. 

Thus the Franciscan missionaries in less than half a 
century had spread, not only over all the islands of the 
Atlantic, but over the continent, taking part in all the 
famous adventures in which the discovery and conquest of 
those territories abounded. From the Antilles to the 
Mississippi there were everywhere converted nations, religious 

136 



houses founded, and missions, the soil of which was ferti- 
lized by their blood; and of this work the greater part 
remained and yet remains unknown to the world. History 
records only the names of those who reaped the mere 
human glory of the conquest ; those engaged in the 
propaganda of the Faith are barely noticed or known only 
to heaven. 

It is quite certain that the first Franciscan missionaries 
to New Spain proposed to penetrate that vast country, and 
by crossing other seas, if any were encountered, to explore 
other countries and make the journey around the globe. 
The idea of Columbus, which the Franciscans had encouraged, 
of reaching the east by way of the west, which was unex- 
pectedly crowned by the immense discovery of America, 
was imbibed by the later Franciscans who generously fol- 
lowed in his footsteps, and they succeeded in accomplishing 
his purpose ; for it is a fact that, after crossing from 
Europe to America, they ultimately reached the Philippines, 
China, and Japan — those empires towards which Columbus 
steered the course that brought him to America. 

Other missionaries penetrated to the southern continent 
from the Antilles, while their brethren were crossing to the 
north and to the east. At the conquest of Peru and 
Quito was present a Franciscan friar, a notable missionary 
and author, who mitigated the cruelty of the conquerors 
with the balm of faith and Christian charity, and who 
would have achieved the distinction of historian of America 
had not all his writings unfortunately been lost. 

Friar Marco of Nice, whom we have already found sug- 
gesting the expedition of Coronado, went from Nicaragua 
into Peru with several companions to exercise his sacred 
ministry. He was the first chronicler of the conquest, 
especially of Quito, and an intelligent gatherer of important 
accounts concerning the authentic history of that empire ; 
accounts which have been laid under contribution by all 
subsequent writers upon Peru. He and his eleven companions 
will always be remembered as seeking with sweet charity to 
try and make the wretched sufferers forget what they had 
endured in the blood-stained and cruel conquest, and to 

»37 



inaugurate an era of justice, prosperity, and peace. Gio- 
vanni of Neoncon, Francisco of the Angels, Francisco of 
the Cross. Francisco of St. Anne, Peter of Portugal, Alonzo 
of Eparcena, Francisco of Marchena, Francisco of Aragon, 
Jodoco Ricke, priests, and the friars Martino of Junilla and 
Alonso of Ucanice, lay-brothers, disembarked barefooted at 
Payta with Marco, and proceeded at once to Cuzco, a dis- 
tance of 300 leagues, preaching the gospel on their way. 
From there they journeyed the enormous distance to the 
province of Charcas, repeating the miracles of the twelve 
disciples of Christ. Their voices stirred those peoples in 
their darkness, and they destroyed their idols and bowed 
their heads to adore the true Creator whom they then 
knew for the first time. 

A convent was founded in Quito in 1534 which became 
one of the principal centres whence the missionaries spread 
to preach Christ to countless tribes. Later on thirty-nine 
more convents were founded through their instrumentality, 
composing the regular Province of Quito. Neither was 
their teaching restricted to faith and morals, though these 
be the highest and most important to which the human 
intellect can aspire ; but through that tie which, in its true 
comprehension, joins reason to faith and religion to civiliza- 
tion, they dedicated themselves largely to civil and economi- 
cal instriiction. Jodoco of Flanders, assisted by the friars, 
taught how to plow with oxen, to construct plows, yokes, 
and wagons. He taught to read, write, count, play upon 
musical instruments — stringed and with keys — organs, flutes, 
trumpets, and horns. Being an expert naturalist, he pre- 
dicted the growth and prosperity of the provinces, and 
trained the natives in useful mechanical arts in order to 
render them independent of the Spaniards, and they soon 
became experts. 

He opened a school of painting, bookkeeping, and callig- 
raphy, and was the originator and promoter of the arts, 
and the teacher of authors, singers, musicians, painters (of 
miniatures, also), hatmakers, and weavers of cloth and hemp. 
He imported the most useful grain from Europe, including 
wheat, and showed how to cultivate it. There still exists 

138 



in Quito the earthenware vase in which he preserved the 
precious seed brought by him from Spain. A nun of the 
Poor Clares, a lady of Retez, introduced the culture of 
flax in Cuzco. To appreciate these labors, which at first 
sight may seem of little moment, it must be borne in mind 
that no sudden and radical change from barbarism to civili- 
zation can be effected, but that it is to be attained by 
the destruction of the vices of savage tribes and the 
gradual softening of their natures, preserving all their 
native good and natural aspect. 

To form a summary idea of what the Franciscan Fathers 
accomplished in a very short time, we need only learn what 
were the first convents founded by them, each convent 
being the centre of very extensive missions whence they 
set out among the endless multitude of tribes and nations 
which peopled the country. The Franciscan convents are 
sure proof of the fruitfulness of the labors of the missionaries ; 
and as they are maintained by the charity of the faithful, 
are proof of the sympathy and gratitude with which their 
labors were received by the surrounding peoples. 

The first convents were those of Lima, Cuzco, Quito, 
Chuqudabo, Truxillo, Chuquisaca, Xausca, Guamanga, Arequipa, 
Caxamarca, Potosi, Chachapogad, Collaguas and della Paz — 
which augmented to such an extent that the Custody 
preached in a country of more than a thousand leagpaes in 
length, and when in 1553 it was declared a Province, it 
was necessary to constitute several other Custodies depend- 
ent upon it, viz. : those of St. Antonio, of Los Charcas, of 
the new empire of Granada, of San Paul, of Quito, and of 
the Holy Trinity in Chili, afterwards constituted as regular 
Provinces. 

A description of the limits of Charcas will give an idea 
of the extent of their jurisdictions. To it were assigned 
the convents of Cuzco, founded by Friar Pietro, a Portu- 
guese, in 1537; Chuquisaca and Potosi, founded in 1540; 
della Paz, founded in 1 549 ; to which were subsequently added 
that of Cochabamba in 1581, Mitzque in 1600, Oruro and 
Tarija in 1606, besides the convents of Collagua, Los Reyes 
di Achorna, the Assumption of Chibay, Calletti, founded in 

139 



the same year, and the same province with the missions of 
the Holy Cross of Tute, St. Peter of Tisco, St. John of 
Tibayo, of the valley of Yucay, five leagues from Cuzco, 
founded in 1570, with the missions of Huayllabamba ; 
Pocona, founded in 1577, St. Francis of Pocxi, five leagues 
from Arequipa, and St. Sebastian at Mitzque, which ex- 
tended over the entire valley of Ayquila and Holoy. 

Continuing to advance along the southern continent, in the 
year 1538, five missionaries under Father Bernardo di 
Armenta were the first to arrive in Paraguay and the river 
Plate. Shortly after they compiled a grammar of the 
Guarani language, into which they translated the catechism 
and many prayers. The most illustrious of the missionaries 
was Father Louis of Bolanos, a companion of St. Francis 
of Solano. Aided by several fellow-workers, he erected 
many chapels and churches in Guayra, founding six 
" Riduzioni," or, rather, large settlements, along the banks 
of the Ibaxiba, Paranepane and Pirano, which, subsequently 
passing into the hands of the Jesuits, became most beauti- 
ful illustrations of the glory of missionary work. 

At this time the Portuguese rivals of the Spaniards, 
navigating towards India, discovered and took possession of 
Brazil, where they disembarked the first Catholic mission- 
aries — Franciscan friars — who began at once to zealously 
preach the Faith. They were affectionately received by the 
natives, and built a house with an altar dedicated to their 
Seraphic Patriarch — the first temple devoted to the true God in 
Brazil. They had the happiness to seal their mission with 
their blood, being massacred by some savage fanatics who were 
full of wrath at the favor with which they were received and at 
the expansion of the Christian faith. Thus the churches of 
Bahia had the privilege of inscribing in the list of martyrs 
its first apostles. 

Other missionaries accompanied expeditions of discovery 
in the southern ocean to teach faith and civilization; but 
when the Portuguese departed from Brazil the Franciscans 
remained behind. The ministration of Friar Pietro di 
Palacios was as beautiful as memorable. Withdrawing to a 
high and wooded mountain on one side of the port of Villa 



Velha, he built two chapels, dedicating one to St. Francis 
and the other to Our Lady of Sorrows, which afterwards 
became holy sanctuaries. He led a life of prayer, contem- 
plation and mortification in conjunction with his missionary 
work in the outside world. Every Sunday he descended the 
mountain to visit the principal churches. Traversing the 
streets of the city, cross in hand, he instructed the children 
in the Faith, and, surrounded everywhere by a multitude 
to listen to his sermons and receive his blessing, he preached 
the gospel in Vittoria and in Villa Velha with seraphic sim- 
plicity. He visited the savage tribes surrounding the cities 
of Capitania and the Holy Ghost, remaining for days among 
them, instructing, baptizing, and doing his utmost to instil 
the sweet spirit of the gospel. He died in his beloved 
grotto, near the chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows, in the 
year 1570. His memory survived, and the veneration for 
him has steadily increased. 

When the first Franciscan convent was founded in Olinda, 
missions were established along the coast, from north of 
Capitania as far as Rio Janeiro, gradually expanding to 
Custodies and Provinces. The first Custody, afterwards a 
Province, was St. Antonio, which began with the Convent 
of Olinda, and was followed by others — Bahia in 1587, 
Iguaracu in 15 38, Paraiba in 1590, Vittoria in 1591, Rio 
Janeiro, Reciffe and Pojuca in 1606, Seregipe del Conde in 
1629, Villa Formosa and Serenhanheu in 1630, Villa dos 
Santos and San Paolo in 1639, Casserebu and Paraguacu in 
1649, Cayru of the Grand Island and Pena dello Spirito 
Santo in 1650, Itanhanheu in 1655, Seregipe del Rey in 
1658, St. Sebastian dell' Ampara in 1659, and Penedo and 
Alagoas in 1660. These convents were still laboring in 1750 
in the territories of Paraiba, Soanne, Mauque, Brazo del 
Peixe, St. Augustin, Assumption, Jacoca, St. Michele di 
Goayana, Ponta das Pedras, Itapespina d' Iguaracu, and two 
in Fernambuco ; all the savage tribes of these parts having 
been civilized through the efforts of the missionaries. 

The next regular Province, called Conception, was organized 
in 1 60 1. In 1740 it included thirteen convents and labored 
besides in St. Michel, of the district of St. Paul, among 



Indians of the Carijos tribe ; in St. John in the territories 
of the Cities of Itanhanheu ; St. Antonio in the lands of 
the Cities of San Salvador los Campos Guaytacases among 
Indians of the Garulha tribe, and finally Our Lady of 
Escada, in the district of the town of Sacaratri, among 
Indians belonging to the same tribe. Many neophytes of 
the Order were made in these missions, first among settlers 
from Portugal settled in Brazil, and then among the natives, 
who, to this day, have been distinguished for virtue, and 
in science and literature, and as bright examples of the 
holiness, activity and decorum of the Order. 

Among the first-fruits of that abundant harvest we have 
Father Paul of St. Catherine, bom in 1577, and who, after 
entering the Order of St. Francis, excelled in erudition as 
well as in zeal for the missions, continuous and fruitful 
preachings, persuasive reasoning, and holy example. Among 
recent naturalists, Vellojo, called the Linnaeus of America, 
another of a series of more than thirty-two highly esteemed 
monks, illustrating the fauna and flora of Brazil, is thus 
spoken of by the quarterly review Institudo Brasileiro de 
Rio Janeiro : "If the glory of nations springs from the 
graves of their sons, gratitude demands that their names 
be transmitted to posterity with admiration and reverence. 
Sweden justly exalts the name of its illustrious Linnseus, 
Switzerland is proud of the genius of De CandoUe, Great 
Britain has given to the world the admirable genius of 
Brown and Hooker, who gathered all that the schools of 
France and Germany, represented by Jussieu, Adanson, 
Brongniart, Baillon, Endlicher, Humboldt and Martin had 
accomplished : and Brazil has the proud distinction of 
seeing all those schools and nations recur to the gifted 
works of the Franciscan Friar Mariano Vellojo. Respect Bra- 
zilian philology and render homage to his illustrious name." 

In his explorations he had for companions Friar Anastasio 
of St. Ignes, author of the Herbaceous definitions, and 
Friar Francisco Solano, the designer and miniature painter 
of the plants which Vellojo discovered and classified. He 
died June 13th, 1811, and was a contemporary of the 
equally notable naturalist Father Giuseppe da Costa 



Azevedo of the Franciscan Order, who was especially noted 
for his mineralogical studies. Greatly honored in Brazilian 
history and renowned for sacred eloquence were Francisco 
da Moutalverne, Father Sampaio and Francis of St. Charles; 
the last named, with Father Manuel da Santa Maria 
Hapatarica, have given Brazil the finest poetical productions 
of which it boasts. 

The establishment of the Franciscan Provinces in Brazil 
did not cause the Provinces of Europe, and especially those 
of Portugal where they originated, to cease to send other 
apostles into that harvest of the Lord. On the contrary, 
full of joy at having instituted those missions, they con- 
tinued to share their hardships. The Province of San An- 
tonio of Portugal had the following missions in Gran Para : 
that of Our Lady of the Rosary, among the Indians of the 
Saracas tribe ; of St. Joseph, in the same island, among the 
Indians of the Aruaa and Marunus tribes; of Our Lady of 
the Conception of Para; of the Amazon river, among the 
Indians of the Aracaju tribe; of St. Antonio of Anajatiba, 
among Indians of the Aruaa tribes; of the Holy Christ of 
the River Mapahu; of Our Lady of Grace, of the Amazon 
river; of Our Lady of the Conception of Guarapiranga, 
frontier of the city of Gran Para, all among Indians of 
different tribes. At the same time the Province of Concep- 
tion and of Piety had numerous missions there. 

At the present date the holy work continues. In 1853 
the Franciscans Gesnaldo Machetti, Vincenzo Rocchi, Sam- 
uele Mancini and Luigi Zaccagni, who went as missionaries 
to Bolivia, were invited by the Brazilian Minister Plenipo- 
tentiary at Bolivia to establish missions in Northern Brazil. 
They accepted the invitation and have been joined by 
other Franciscan missionaries from Germany. 

Thus slowly but progressively the Christian and civil re- 
generation of Brazil has been effected; and here, before 
taking leave of Brazil, is the proper moment to relate that 
the Franciscans who were preaching in Peru met by won- 
derful chance their fellow-workers from Brazil who were 
exploring the course of the great Amazon river. Father 
Laureano of the Cross has left a detailed narrative of this 



meeting, recounting in all its particulars with beautiful 
grace how two lay-brothers of the Province of the Twelve 
Apostles, with endless good fortune, managed to discover 
the whole course of the Maragnon, an undertaking vainly 
attempted before that time on account of its innumerable 
difficulties. 

The best idea of the diffusion of the Franciscans in 
America will be obtained from an enumeration of their 
Provinces in the order of their foundation. Holy Cross of 
Caracas, 1505; Holy Gospel in Mexico, 1534; Twelve Apos- 
tles in Peru, 1553; St. Joseph in Yucatan, 1559; St. Peter 
and Paul of Michoachan, 1565; Most Holy Name of Jesus 
in Guatemala, 1565; Santa Fede in New Granada, 1565; 
St. Francis of Quito, 1565; Most Holy Trinity in Chili, 
1565; St. Antonio de las Charcas, 1565; St. Gregorio of 
Nicaragua, 1577; St. Francisco among the Zacatecas, 1603; 
St. Diego in Mexico, 1603; St. Diego in Mexico, 1606; St. 
Francis of Xalisco, 1606; St. Helena in Florida, 161 2; the 
Assumption in Paraguay, 1612; St. Antonio in Brazil, 1657; 
the Immaculate Conception in Brazil, 1675 ; and in later 
years the Custody of the Immaculate Conception of Mary 
in Buffalo, of St. John Baptist in Cincinnati and the Prov- 
ince of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, besides nu- 
merous missionary colleges spread over the eastern and 
southern parts of America. 

The limits of this paper do not permit us to do more 
than name the principal personages and prominent points 
of the glorious apostolate of the Franciscans not already 
touched upon. In 1595 a new search for El Dorado, or 
the fabulous land where the rocks, trees and mountains 
were all fine gold, tempted the fitting out of an expedition 
to the basin of the Orinoco. Twelve missionaries accom- 
panied it, and the fruit of their hardships and fatigues is 
found in thirteen large missions established there from the 
middle of the seventeenth century. Their historian is 
Father Conlin, who had a large share in them. They cov- 
ered the territory from the river Crunana or Manzanares to 
the Unare — twenty-five leagues from east to west, and fifty 
miles north and south, along the coast as far as the Ori- 



noco, where, in 1799, they had already gathered and sub- 
jected to the civil government of these Provinces sixteen 
tribes. This union was consecrated with the blood of three 
Franciscan friars, who died after ferocious tortures by the 
savage tribes, whose cruel disposition presented the great- 
est difficulties to the missionaries. But this was the story 
in nearly all the missions of America. In Peru, the Indian 
neighbors to the Panataguas tribe slew with arrows two 
venerable Fathers and Franciscan missionaries, Cristoforo 
Larios and Girolamo Ximenes. 

Father Francisco di Morales and Father Francisco di 
Aliozer preached in the immense and populous valley of the 
CoUao, in the centre of which is Lake Titicaca, and soon 
administered ten thousand baptisms. Father Girolamo of 
Villa Carillo, explored the thinly populated valley of Col- 
laguas, and with the help of several fellow-workers, 
among whom was Father Gasparo di Vanos, a Portuguese, 
a saint and a very gifted apostle, made over thirty thousand 
converts. The province of Caxamalco was the scene of the 
labors of a poor converted lay-brother, Matteo of Jumilla, 
whose voice shook those idolatrous hearts so strongly that 
they came crowding in throngs to receive faith through 
baptism. Thus step by step from Panataguas to the Ama- 
zon and as far as the Cordilleras, without pausing for 
hindrance or obstacle, the missionaries held their way. 

On the other side the Cordilleras was a world in itself, 
and here the mission work was continued from the middle 
of the seventeenth century to this day. They yet labor in 
Peru, Mexico, Paraguay, Chili and Brazil among tribes 
which still remain in barbarism. Of the work we possess 
accounts by Arnich, Unizzani, Vernazza Revello, Mossi, 
Compte, Sabate, Cardus Sans and Armentia, besides the 
publications of Bustamente and Icazbalceta. Of the Diaries 
of Armentia, a very competent judge. Carlo Bravo speaks 
in very flattering terms as deserving of admiration (apart 
from its religious side) for its scientific features, which are 
valuable no less for the extent and difficulty of the ex- 
plored region than for the exactness of the information col- 
lected and preserved. 



Much more could be added, but it would require volumes 
to detail the names of the Franciscan Fathers who preached 
the gospel in America and gave impulse to its civilization, 
the countries they explored, the centres of missionary work 
they founded, the languages they mastered, the colonies they 
established and the accounts which they wrote. In the 
empire of Quito alone there were thirty-two principal centres 
of missions from which hundreds of apostles went forth in 
every direction, and which, after becoming convents of Reg- 
ular Observance, continue their missionary work to this 
day. Suarez in his ecclesiastical narrative wrote : ' ' The 
Franciscan Order is the most ancient in the equator and the 
one which labors most for the conversion of nations." Many 
of the colonies which constitute the present republic of 
Quito were founded by the Order, and its glorious traditions 
are happily continued by Father Macia (since 1876 Bishop of 
Loja), who has created great and small missions where more 
than two hundred young men have been educated; who has 
renewed the ancient convent of St. Francis of the Observ- 
ance and also a numerous community of the Third Order ; 
is, moreover, now restoring the convent of the Dominicans, 
has called to his diocese the daughters of St. Vincent de 
Paul to nurse in the hospital and to open a house of the 
Good Shepherd, and with the Fathers of his Order is con- 
stantly about mission work in his large flock, indefatigable 
in spreading the Divine word. 

The first bishop of Tucuman was the Franciscan Father 
Francisco Belmonte, nominated by Pius V., who instituted 
the Episcopal hierarchy there in May loth, 1570. Another 
Franciscan, Father Girolamo Albornoz, succeeded him, fol- 
lowed by Father Ferdinand of Trejo. The mission of 
Tucuman extended to the Cumana, to the river Plate and 
to the Ciaco; so that in 1587 the Order was established 
there in five convents or central missions — San Michel, 
Eatero, Rioga, Cordova and Corriente. These, like those in 
Paraguay, were united into a Custody dependent upon the 
Province of Peru down to the year 1612, when they were 
united with Paraguay into a great missionary Province 
called ' ' Assumption. ' ' 

146 



One cannot name Tucuman without recalling that prodigy 
San Francesco Solano, whose life was an uninterrupted 
apostleship. Churches, monasteries, convents, hospitals, 
theatres, the public streets, squares and gambling houses 
resounded with his apostolic voice. Evil doers were 
affrighted, profane spectacles were banished from the 
theatres, primitive virtues beamed again in the cloisters and 
among the virgins consecrated to God, and the great 
crimes of the nobility were expiated publicly and solemnly. 
He died 12th July, 1610, lamented by the whole of America. 
He was declared holy and a worker of miracles of the 
New World by Clement X,, and by Benedict XHI., in the 
year 1726, he was solemnly enrolled among the saints. 

The flourishing condition of the Franciscan missions in 
Paraguay is attested by the numerous prelates whom the 
Pontiff nominated to the diocese: John Barrios in 1547, 
Peter de la Torre in 1554, John de Campo in 1570, Martin 
Ignacio de Loyola in 1601, Bernardino Cardenas in 1640, 
and many others. Father Alonzo di Bonaventura and Louis 
di Bolanos labored converting and erecting crosses every- 
where. Along the Picer and the Buay alone, they estab- 
lished fifteen churches, and, with their fellow-laborers from 
Buenos Ayres, converted thousands of Indians along the 
river as far as Quiros. Father Luiz di Bolanos preached 
the gospel for sixty years, and died 8th October, 1629. 

In 1612 the Franciscan Order had a very flourishing 
Province in the region comprising Paraguay and Tucuman, 
as well as eleven convents: St. George in Cordova, San 
Michel in Tucuman, Assumption in Paraguay, the Eleven 
Thousand Virgins in Puerto, St. Francis in Salta, St. 
Francis in Cucin, St. James in Estero, San Martin in 
Eatero, St. Ann in Santa Fede, San Francis in Rocha, 
and St. Francis in Corrientes — all with missions and con- 
vents depending on them, such as Ytabi, Calapa, Yutig, 
Oclies, and others. Illustrious among the numerous active 
and holy missionaries, in the first century of the discovery 
of America, were Father Francis di Aroca, Diego di Lagunas, 
Alfonso de la Torre, Andrea Rodriguez, John de San 
Bernardo, John de Vergura and Martin Ignacio de Loyola ; 

147 



not omitting the saintly Bishop Cordenas, called the Father 
of the Poor Indians. 

As constant and vigorous defenders of the poor Indians, 
the Franciscans incessantly despatched eloquent memorials 
to the Court of Spain ; that of the celebrated missionary 
and historian Father Bonaventure Cordova Salinas, covering 
150 printed folio pages, is most affecting, and so is the 
earnest account of Father John da Silva, in 1621. Peter 
of Maldivia, who compiled the "Conquest of Chili" for the 
Court of Spain, was among the first missionaries in 1541, 
together with the Franciscan brother, Ferdinand Barrionueve, 
of noble birth, and they were followed by many other fellow- 
workers, such as Father Bernardino Aguero, who on entering 
Coquimbo and Copimpo, obtained, but not without much 
resistance, numerous conversions. Others joined them in 
1552, including Brother Francis Turingia and John Gallegos. 
But not being sufficient for all the work, three more 
were brought from Lima in the next year, 1553, by Father 
John de Toralba ; viz., Christopher di Ravaneda, John de la 
Torre, called the Saint, and the converted brother, Jacinto 
di Frenegal, who subsequently opened a house which was 
the beginning of the foundation of the Franciscan Missionary 
Province of Chili, under the name of the "Holy Trinity." 

To soften the naturally ferocious spirit of the Araucani, 
the missionaries founded convents in Araucania, around 
which those wild people spread their camps, and thus ob- 
tained the immediate protection and defence of the pastors. 
Such were the convents founded by Father Torralba, in 
Augol, in Imperiale, in Valdivia, in 1558, from whence he pene- 
trated the territory of the Cunci and arrived as far as 
Osorno, where he founded another convent, under the pro- 
tection of the martyr saints, Cosmas and Damian, and still 
another in Villa Rica, named " Our Lady delle Nevi," 
1568. An episcopal see being erected in Imperiale, the first 
bishop was the Franciscan brother Antonio of San Michel, 
guardian of the City of Cuzco, in Peru, who very soon 
opened up new missions in Budi, Ragilhue and Hualpi, a 
seminary for young men who felt a call to ecclesiastical 
orders, and establishments for the education of girls. 



Among the most noted missionaries was Father Ferdinand 
Barrionueve, who afterwards became bishop of Santiago ; 
Father Diego of Medellin, his successor to the same see 
in 1574, and the bishops of Santiago, Brother Peter of 
Azuaga, John Perez de Espinoza and Luis Girolamo D'Ore, 
illustrious prelates worthy of being venerated in every 
respect, who by example, work and word regenerated the 
country. Their labors were not restricted to religious 
teaching, but included the establishment of civil institutions, 
according to the needs of the undeveloped natures and the 
complex relations among which they labored. 

Father Turingia (says Eyzaguirre) in the sixteenth cen- 
tury was the pride of Chili. Gifted by heaven with a 
remarkable aptitude for preaching the gospel, he never 
spoke but to pour forth a torrent of pious and consoling 
words. At the sound of his voice, the most hardened 
hearts were softened, the vicious reformed their lives, and 
pious souls were wrapt as in an atmosphere from Paradise. 
His companion in hardships and not inferior in merit, was 
Father Francis Gallegos ; and after them must be named Father 
Francis Frenegal, John della Torre, Cristopher Ravaneda, 
John di Tobar, Michel Bocillo, Melchior Arteaga, Thomas Toro, 
John of St. Bonaventura, Father Peter Arteca, a native of 
Santiago, who died with the reputation of a saint, on May 3d, 
1647, and the glorious wonder-worker. Father Andrew Corzo, 
the inseparable companion of St. Francis Solano. 

Not less brightly than the sons of the First Order of St. 
Francis shone the daughters of the Second Order of the 
Sisters of St. Clare in Chili, who were summoned by the 
two Franciscan prelates Medellin and Solier. All the his- 
torians of that country agree in recognizing the conspicuous 
services rendered by those generous ladies to religion and to 
the state. The two monasteries of Osorno and Imperiale 
especially distinguished themselves by the heroism they dis- 
played during the siege to which those cities were subjected 
by the Araucanians. The religious behaved so admirably as 
to inspire respect in the savages, flushed by victory and 
ready for the worst excesses, and it is almost a miracle 
that they escaped unharmed. 

»49 



The spiritual conquest of Canada, of which ingenious and 
fine descriptions have been left us by the Franciscans Le 
Clercq, Pagard, Hennepin and Crespel (men who shine as 
so many lights in the annals of the Order and the Biblio- 
graphie Universelle) is a most edifying history. In 1614 
Father Dionisio Jamay started for Canada, as commissary, 
with John d'Olbeau, Joseph Le Caron and the lay -brother 
Pacifico Duplessis. The natives were ferocious, without 
fixed abodes, transporting their huts here and there, wher- 
ever they could fish and hunt. The missionaries, after 
selecting Quebec as a centre, extended the network of their 
missions, John d'Olbeau going among the Montagneses and 
Father Joseph Le Caron among the Hurons. In 1620, being 
strengthened by a new band of missionaries, they opened a 
regular convent in Quebec, and the following year, on the 
25th of May, the church was blessed under the patronage 
of Our Lady of the Angels. 

The war, which broke out shortly afterwards between the 
French and the Iroquois, made the diffusion of the holy 
gospel amongst those tribes more difficult, the missionaries 
being exposed every moment to capture and death at the 
hands of the savages. Father PouUin, who accompanied his 
countrymen to the assault of St. Louis, fell into the hands 
of the Indians, who, according to their custom, prepared to 
burn him. The French, being informed of the meditated 
cruelty, quickly offered their prisoners as ransom and were 
successful. The missionary was found covered with wounds 
and bound to the stake for sacrifice. Two prisoners, who 
refused to go back to their tribe, were taught the gospel 
by him, and subsequently rendered valuable service, in the 
cause of Jesus Christ, to their own people. 

Having finished their convent, the Franciscans founded a 
Novitiate in Quebec in 1622 ; and in 1623 a new band of 
missionaries came from the Province of St. Dionisio, in 
France ; amongst whom were the venerable Father Nicholas 
Viel, with the lay-brothers Teodato Pagard and Gervasio 
Moyer. 

They sailed up the St. Lawrence, established themselves 
amongst the Hurons, who received them with festivities, and 



besought the Fathers to remain with them in their huts. 
It was with difficulty they could be made to understand 
that it would produce better results for the liberty and ex- 
tension of the Apostolic ministry to let the missionaries 
have separate houses. Notwithstanding this kindly reception, 
the mission had to overcome many difficulties, owing to the 
lack of intelligence of the tribe, who could only very slowly 
be subdued to Christianity. But all difficulties were over- 
come by the mild disposition of the natives and the untir- 
ing efforts of the missionaries, who were implicitly obeyed. 

Anoindaon, chief of Quieunonascaran, felt such affection for 
the Franciscans, that he insisted upon assuming the office of 
their major-domo, and was constantly with them. Finding 
them sometimes kneeling in prayer in the chapel, he also 
knelt by their side, joining, as they did, his hands, and not 
being able to do more, attempted to imitate their gestures, 
moving his lips and raising his eyes to heaven. Here he 
remained until the service, sometimes a long one, was over, 
although he was 75 years of age. When one of the Fathers 
was left alone, the others being absent, he wished to sleep 
in the missionary's hut, in order to protect him from danger, 
and only with difficulty and to his great sorrow could be 
dissuaded from doing so. 

It was found necessary that Father Pagard and Father 
Joseph should return to Quebec to provide the necessaries 
to establish the Mission on a better and more solid footing 
since they were now assured of the affection of the tribes, 
and they travelled in two canoes with different guides, arriv- 
ing at Quebec eight days apart. The journey as described by 
Pagard was very painful, but yet was a continual mission 
among the natives of the country they passed through, and 
very touching was their separation from the tribe of the 
Hurons, who, flocking around them, wept in their desola- 
tion. Having arrived at Quebec, after many hardships, they 
found an order from the Provincial of Paris, recalling them 
without delay to France. 

"My poor Canada!" concludes the loving narrative of 
Father Pagard, "dear land of the Hurons, I had chosen 
thee for the abode of my last days, working for thy conver- 



sion, but this has not been granted me. None will ever 
know what grief I suffered in leaving those tribes envel- 
oped in dark superstition ! But other, holy, missionaries will 
take my place, and I know for certain that their full con- 
version will be accomplished some day, to be the condem- 
nation of so many Christians, who, surrounded by God with 
so many blessings, are so ungrateful and insensible to 
His kindness." His prediction was fulfilled, in respect to the 
efforts of the Franciscans to convert the tribes ; for they had 
conceived so much affection for the Indians that they were 
never able to abandon them. 

The Fathers of the Province of Aquitania sent some of 
their fellow missionaries to Acadia, and one of them, called 
Bernardino or Sebastian, started from Miscou, intending to 
go as far as the River St. John, where the principal station 
of the Mission was located ; in the wilderness between Mis- 
cou and Porto Real he perished with all his companions. 
He had preached the Gospel amongst the savages for three 
years, so writes Father Le Tac, was thoroughly acquainted 
with their language and had fully gained their love and 
esteem. 

The Franciscans Pagard, Hennepin, Le Clercq, and Cres- 
pel have earned their reputation, not only for their mission- 
ary work, but for their writings, which constitute a treasury 
of information. The work of Pagard, writes Le Chevalier, 
comprises a period of about fifteen years, and furnishes, 
whether as regards details or as a whole, an important 
part of the history of North America. The letter of 
Father Dionisio Jamay is a vivid description of the first 
Franciscan Convent on the borders of the St. Lawrence, 
and explains very clearly the state of the Canadian Colony 
at the beginning of the seventeenth century. We owe to 
Pagard very valuable and exact accounts of the Hurons, the 
Montaneti, the Trocheti, and different other Indian tribes. 
He studied them carefully and patiently, and knew their 
language, their customs, habits and manners, which are all 
described with wonderftd accuracy, and sometimes with an 
elegance of language to which the historians of the seven- 
teenth century were not accustomed. The topography also 

15a 



is exact. Having left France bearing to the savages the 
standard of the Roman faith, he and his fellow-workers 
planted Catholicism in New France, and endowed the country 
with vigoroiis Catholic power, which was maintained down 
to the capture of Quebec by the English in 1759. Pagard 
was one of the most devoted Apostles of the Roman 
Catholic Church. He declares it, he repeats it, he reveals it in 
every word, he boasts of it and glories in it. Whoever 
takes up his books, finds him an original, instructive, clever 
and first rate author, with a heart full of faith, love, and 
rectitude. The same can be said of the other writers, fel- 
low-workers of Pagard, Le Clercq, Hennepin and Cres- 
pel. Le Tac's works, which are very scarce, are of 
great value, and contain the choicest information. His 
name among the Franciscans who first entered Canada to 
preach the Gospel, and made it abound with Apostolic 
labor, is still a benediction. 

A Father of the Society of Jesus, Father Huygens, writes 
in 1876 to Father Van Loo, a Belgian Franciscan, "The 
name of the Franciscan Fathers is still blessed in Lower 
Canada. The holy Bishop of Montreal, Mgr. Bourget, would 
receive you with open arms. The Third Order is still nu- 
merous among both sexes ; they still hold regular meetings 
in IMontreal. Being chaplain at the Monastery of the Ladies 
of the Sacred Heart at the Falls of RecoUetto (where there 
is one of our novitiates, eight miles from Montreal), on 
Sundays and other feast days a Dominican of the Third 
Order waits on me at the table, wearing the Franciscan 
tunic and waist cord. The Belgian Fathers of Charity do 
much good there. The material is not lacking. The citizens 
of Montreal are bviilding a fine convent for the Carmelites, 
who are very glad of this. The good Franciscan Fathers 
were those who caused the Jesuits to come to Canada. We 
should be happy if we could induce them to return, and in 
truth a few years ago they returned — being called and ex 
pected with the greatest enthusiasm." 

In 1880 the vicar-custodian of Jerusalem (from whence he 
was called) was appointed commissioner of the Terra Santa 
in Canada, his coming exciting enthusiasm of which few 

X53 



examples are found in history. Seeing how warmly he was 
welcomed, he conceived the idea of re-establishing in Can- 
ada the Franciscan Order, beginning with the foundation of 
the commissaryship of the Terra Santa, which started under 
the happiest auspices. In June, 1888, his purpose was ef- 
fected. He went with three companions to establish the 
house projected eight years before ; and thus the restora- 
tion of our Order in that country was inaugurated, and 
very soon their labors flourished, extending to religious and 
other institutions. The outlook is good, and we hope by 
the grace of God the holy work may be fruitfvd : of which 
the seed was sown by the sons of the patriarch of Assisi 
in a nation that adores them. 

Retracing a few steps, we have to point out how the apos- 
tolic work of the Franciscans continued to develop in other 
territories of North and South America. The ill-success of 
the expeditions of Coronado, and afterwards of Soto, some- 
what damped, but did not extinguish, the ardor for new 
discoveries. A Franciscan called Augustin, full of zeal for 
the salvation of souls, being told that in the interior there 
were large populations composed of very fierce peoples, ob- 
tained permission to go to them with two Fathers, Francis 
Lopez and John de Santa Maria. Arriving in 1581, they 
established a mission among the Tizuas, and then going 
further into the interior about 400 Mexican leagues, in various 
disguises, they were ultimately betrayed by the natives and 
killed, being lamented sorely by the new converts. 

In this way New Mexico was discovered. In 1596 a new 
and more numerous expedition was sent out under the leader- 
ship of Oiiate, with eight Franciscans, accompanied by Father 
Rodrigo Duran, as Commissary. After the subjugation of 
the natives almost without resistance, they showing willing- 
ness to be taught the Christian faith and to be baptized, 
they were intrusted to the Franciscans in the following 
order : to Father Francis of St. Michael, the Province of 
Pecos, with eleven tribes of the Laguna, which is in the 
East, besides the shepherds of the Cordilleras of the Sierra 
Nevada, and the tribes of Zuanquiz and Hohota, Yonalins, 
Zatoe, Xaimela, Aggey, Cuza, Cizentetpi, Acoli, Abbo, 



Apena, Axanti, Amaxa, Couna, in Alle Atuyama, and 
Chein, and finally the four other large ones of Xumanas, 
which are called Atripuy, Genobey, Zuelotetrey, and Patao- 
trey. 

To Father Francis of Zamora, the tribes of the Province 
of the Picuries; all the Apaches of the Sierra Nevada to the 
north and east, and all those of the province of Taos. To 
Father John de Reixas, the tribes of the province of the 
Cheres, together with those of Castixes, of Comitre, of San 
Domingo, of Alipoti Chochiti of the Lake of Carabajed, of 
San Marco, San Cristoforo, Sant Anna, Ojana, Guipana, 
Puerto and Popolo Bruciato. To Father Alonzo di Lugo, the 
tribes of the province of Euimes, with those of Yjar, 
Guayoguia, Mecastria, Quinsta, Ceca, Potre, Trea, Guatitritti, 
Catroo, and Apedes. To Father Andrew Corchado, the tribes of 
the province of Trias, with those of Ramaya, Yaco, Toyagua, 
and Pelchin. To Father Giovanni Claros, the tribes of the prov- 
ince of Tigfuas, with those of Mapeya, Tuchimas, and Para, 
besides those south of the North River. To Father Cristo- 
foro of Salazar, the tribes of the province of Tepuas, be- 
sides the City of San Francisco of the Spaniards, which 
was building. 

Among the Pecos, two miles from the village of Ojke, the 
first colony was established: building there a wooden church, 
which was the first one erected in New Mexico. And from 
this colony, which became the centre of the apostolic labor 
of the Franciscans, they spread out, preaching the gospel 
with great success throughout that great country, building 
numerous churches, to each of which they gave a Saint as 
patron; as in the village of Puaray, San Antonio of 
Padua ; to that in the village of San Domingo, ' ' The Virgin 
Assunta nel Cielo;" to that in the town of Picuries, the 
seraphic doctor, San Bonaventura; to that in the town of 
Gallisteo, St. Ann, the mother of the Blessed Virgin. The 
Fathers were subsequently re-enforced by six more mission- 
aries, with a new commissary in the place of Escalona, who 
had resigned. This was Father Francis Escobar, who en- 
couraged the mission so much that the most marvellous prog- 
ress was obtained. The soul of the work and the example 



for the newcomers were the Fathers who already knew the 
character, language, and manners of the natives, viz. : 
Father Escalona, Father Francis of St. Michael, Father Fran- 
cis Taumone, Father Lopez Isquierdo, and Father Gastona 
Peralta, who had become like natives of the country. 

In 1608, when Escobar resigned his office, the converted 
amounted to 8,000. In 1630 Father Alfonso Benavides, 
Custodian of New Mexico, sent to King Philip IV. by the 
General Commissary of India, Father John of Santander, a 
stupendous account, handed down to us, and which only 
lack of space prevents our quoting. Suffice it to say, the 
whole Apache nation was converted, three churches and 
convents being founded among them: one in the borough 
of Pilaho dedicated to the Blessed Virgin ; one in the town 
of Seneca dedicated to San Antonio; the third in the town 
of Sevilletta dedicated to San Lodovic, Archbishop of 
Toulouse. In the tribe of the Ruas, in 1626, the Fathers 
of the convents of Sandia and Yoletta, who ministered to 
their spiritual wants, baptized 7,000, the whole of the tribe; also 
4,000 Queres, 10,000 Tompiros, 4,000 Tanos, and 2,000 Pecos, 
and many more were brought to the Christian faith and 
trained to an almost civilized and regular way of living. 
Those missions went on steadily increasing and flourishing. 

Father Girolamo de Zarate Salmeron, a native of the 
province of the "Santo Evangelio" in Mexico, after many 
years of apostolical hardships among those barbarians, gives 
a complete history of all the expeditions undertaken for 
that conquest, with ample notices of the geography and 
natural history of the entire country. He relates the expe- 
ditions of Captain Espejo with Father Bernardino Beltran, 
and two subsequent ones with a certain Nemarcete and a 
certain Humana in 1594, under the leadership of Sebastiano 
Vizcayno. and in which the Franciscan Fathers Francis 
Balta, a commissary, Diego Perdomo, Bernardino of Zamudia, 
Nicolas Zarabiere and Christopher Lopez, a lay-brother, took 
part. 

In 1599 Father Francis Velasco, who was then commissary 
of New Mexico, with Peter Vergara, a lay-brother, advanced 
more than two hundred leagues into the immense plains 

156 



of Cibola, traversing the tribes of the Vaqueros and Ex- 
causaquex. Finally in 1604 another expedition from San 
Gabriel to reach the south sea was accompanied by the 
commissary Father Francis Escobar, famous for his piety 
and knowledge of languages, and by the lay -brother John 
of San Bonaventura. The voyages of discovery in which 
the Franciscans took part were continued without interrup- 
tion, as shown by the accounts still existing, and brought 
to light from the archives. Such, for instance, as that of 
Father Freytas, lately published in New York by Shea. 

While the Franciscan Fathers thus assisted in new discoveries, 
they zealously improved the condition of the natives whose 
territory had been already explored, by founding churches 
and convents, which multiplied in a marvellous way, and 
which in Mexico alone numbered over fifty besides those in 
Michoacan and Yucatan. In Florida they penetrated in 
1577, and Father Alonzo Regnosi founded two small missions 
in Madre de Dios and in San Sebastian. Finding the 
ground well disposed, others were sent for and came, viz.. 
Father Francis Morrone, superior, Baltasar Lopez, Peter of 
Corpa and Antonio Badajos, with two lay-brothers. Twelve 
more arrived in 1593, under the guidance of Father John of 
Silva. They were Father Michael of Anon, Peter Ferdinand 
of Chosas, Peter Anon, Biagio of Montes, Peter Bermejo and 
Francis Pare j a (the first to write a catechism in the lan- 
guage of the natives, which was afterwards published), 
Peter of San Gregorio, Francis of Velascola, Francis of Avila, 
Francis of Bonilla, Peter Ruiz, and the lay-brother Peter 
Vinegra, who afterwards, for his numerous services, was also 
ordained a priest and excelled as a missionary. 

The missions prospered and gave promise of the best 
results, when an Indian chief arose against them with a 
number of savages, and surprised the missionaries, putting 
them to torture. Father Francis of Avila and a few others 
were miraculously saved. Father Avila, after a long im- 
prisonment, obtained his liberty, being exchanged for a 
savage who had fallen into the Spaniards' hands. As soon 
as the storm had passed, the mission recovered, and being 
re-enforced by new workers, had in a short time such success 



in conversions that in 1603, at the general gathering of the 
Order in Toledo, it was constituted a regular Custody, to- 
gether with that of Habana, Cuba and Bayamo, presided 
over by Father Peter Ruiz, another who had escaped the 
slaughter. 

The number of conversions, as well as the Fathers, 
gradually increasing, it was formally declared a Province 
under the name of St. Helena at the general chapter of the 
Order held in Rome in 161 2, which ordained that Father 
John from Castille should govern it, and it was fortified by 
thirty-two additional missionaries. Philip III. strove by all 
means to strengthen it. The houses which composed it 
were: the Conception in San Augustin, the Conception in 
Cuba, St. Peter in Atulateca, St. Anthony in Enecape, San 
Dominico in Talatsi, St. Luce in Quera, the Holy Cross in 
Trari Chica, St. Ildefonso in Carnilo, St. Lodovic in 
Himahica, the Conception in Havana, Holy Mary of the 
Angels in Bayamo, St. Catarin in Guale, St. Francis in 
Potamo, St. Bonaventura in Guadalquivir, St. Martin in 
Ayacuto, St. Peter in Potoiriba, St. Lawrence in Hibitica- 
chuco, St. Ann in Port au Prince. 

Such was the apostolate of the Franciscans in the three 
large divisions of America, known by the names of Florida, 
California and New Mexico, of which the Province of St. 
Evangelio in Mexico (from which the great movement was 
kept going) was the centre. In nearly all the expeditions 
the missionaries protected the leaders and soldiers who, not- 
withstanding their European firearms, would have perished, 
if it had not been for the authority and reverence which 
the Franciscans had acquired among all the tribes. The 
exploring parties generally started from Mexico, and were 
either preceded or accompanied by the missionaries, who were 
always their preservers, through Michoacan, Yucatan, 
Jalisco, Guatemala, Vizcaya, California and New Mexico. 
They passed from one territory to another, from one nation 
to another, going and coming, not once, but repeatedly, as 
each of them was a missionary, not for one territory only, 
but for all those territories and tribes. 

In Yucatan — where the first missions were established by 

158 



the venerable Father James Testera and his four compan- 
ions, and which was traversed by five other Franciscans 
guided by Father Louis of Villalpando, in 1537, who estab- 
lished good residences in 1546 for the purpose of forming a 
regular missionary Province — new expeditions were formed 
without interruption, such as the 'Six Fathers' in 1548, of 
Father John della Porta; the 'Six Fathers,' of Brother John 
Abalate ; the ' Twelve Fathers,' of Brother Lorenzo of Bien- 
venida, in 1561 ; the 'Twelve Fathers' in 1566. 

In 1573 the expedition of Father Cardete, and in 1576 that 
of the ' Eighteen Fathers,' under Father James of Padilla, 
was followed by that of the 'Sixteen Fathers' in 1578, 
under Peter Cardete ; the 'Twelve Fathers' in 1587, under 
Father Paul of Padilla ; another of Twelve Fathers in 1584, 
under Brother Caspi of Naxara ; another of twelve in 1593, 
under Brother Paul Maldonado ; another of twelve in 1601, 
under Brother Alonzo Perez Guzman, and so on, without 
any noticeable interruption, and it was the same in all other 
parts of America. 

It would be too long a task to give the history of all 
the missionary Fathers who consecrated intellect and life to 
the regeneration of the American Indians. It must suffice 
to name only the more prominent. Father James of Testera 
had the merit of kindling the ardor of his fellow-workers, 
who in numbers exceeding one hundred and fifty went from 
Europe to America to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
Louis of Villalpando was the first to master the language of 
the natives, in which he preached with such success that 
his memory will always be indelible. Lorenzo of Bienvenida 
was one of the principal founders of the missionary Province 
of St. George, with numerous converts. Father Bartolomeo 
of Torquemada lived for forty years among the savages, 
who loved him like a father, and were inconsolable at his 
death. Father Alonzo of Alvarado, who arrived at Yucatan 
in 1549, showed by his saintly life the loving zeal he had for 
the conversion of the Indians. Father Francis Navarro, a 
man of letters, and notable for his knowledge of the Maya 
language, built the convents of Mani, Ytzmal and San Ber- 
nardino of Zizal ; Father John Velasquez founded and or- 



dained in all those missions special hospitals for the Indians. 
Father Thomas of Arenas, one of the first to enter the coun 
try, presided over the missions as a superior, efficaciously- 
promoting their growth. Brother Luiz of Caldera achieved 
splendid results in the conversion of the natives by repre- 
senting in paintings, executed by himself, the mysteries and 
principal facts of our divine religion, a method of instruc- 
tion which marvellously contributed to develop the intelli- 
gence of those people. Father John Ayora, of noble Spanish 
family, and formerly of the University of Alcala, in Hen- 
ares, is noted for his travels, always performed on foot, 
and the hardships which he sustained therein, besides the 
conversions which he obtained, and his various works in the 
Mexican language, which he understood perfectly. 

Father Francis Lorenzo in trying to restrain the Indians 
from their excesses was assaulted and died of his injuries. 
So with the lay-brother John Calero, who perished among 
the Chichimechi in the mountain of Tequila. So with 
Father Andrea Ayala and Francis Gil, who, living amongst 
the Guainamotecas, a most ferocious tribe, had already suc- 
ceeded in converting many of them, patiently teaching them 
the catechism and baptizing them, when the idolaters, en- 
raged at the success of the mission, conspired to slay them. 
One Sunday after Mass they fell upon the Fathers, killed 
them with clubs, cut off their heads, and paraded them in 
triumph. 

Who can narrate in full the terrible sufferings of our 
Franciscans in Zacatecas and the adjoining territories? In 
no other part of the New World was their blood shed so 
freely. Many were killed, many were wounded, others were 
tortured in a thousand different ways. They were betrayed 
and persecuted, fulfilling what the Apostles wrote of the first 
followers of Christ. They were put in irons, beaten, chained, 
pierced and thrown into dungeons. They were cut to pieces, 
sawn asunder, quartered, and died by the sword, in deserts, 
on the mountains, in the ravines and caverns of the earth. 

Father Mendieta's Ecclesiastical Indian History, a large 
volume of 700 pages quarto, is a work without which it 
would be impossible to write the history of the Indian- 



American Church. Mendieta was followed by John Torque 
mada, the author of three folio volumes of the history of 
the Indian Monarchy, giving a full account of the tribes 
which from the beginning populated the country ; the suc- 
cession of their chiefs and kings ; the details as to each and 
all that concerns the religion, laws and customs of the tribes ; 
with a notice also of the people which preceded them. He 
is named by Beristain the Titus Livius of New Spain. 
Prescott affirms also that the student "will find few better 
guides than Torquemada in tracing the stream of historic 
truth up to the fountain head ; such is his manifest integ- 
rity, and so great were his facilities for information on 
most curious points of Mexican antiquity." 

Torquemada was preceded by Father Bernardino Sahagun fifty 
years. The latter was contemporaneous with the conquest, 
and his great work, " The Universal History of New 
Spain" is considered by Prescott to be the best authority 
on all that refers to the religion of the Aztecs. M. 
Jourdanet, who translated it into French, says: "I found it 
indispensable to refer to the works of Sahagun, being per- 
suaded that there is no other which eqtials it. The method 
which he follows in treating his subject, rivets in a special 
way the attention of the readers who wish to be informed 
thereon." The same critic writes of Father Torribio Moto- 
linin : ' ' He was a never to be forgotten missionary, who 
studied the language as well as the customs and natural 
products of the whole country as well as its topography, of 
which he left a complete history. Truly it must be said 
that the details which it contains are most important; not 
only as regards the results of the missionary work of his 
fellow workers, but above all as regards the customs and 
habits of the natives, the products of the country and the dif- 
ferent nature and aspects of the field, being profitable and 
instructive to the new owners of those regions. It is a 
precious book which should not be ignored by those who 
are interested in the study of American lore." 

Of Father Torribio Motolinin, Prescott says: "The History 
of the Indians of New Spain written by Bro. Torribio is 
divided in three parts, viz. : First, the religion, rites and 

i6i 



sacrifices of the Aztecs. Second, their conversion to Chris- 
tianity, and the way in which they celebrated the Church 
feasts. Third, habits and characters of the nation, its 
chronology and astronomy, with an account of the principal 
cities and the most marketable products of the country. 
The investigator of Aztec antiquities will find there many 
curious and important notices, since the author, on account 
of his intimate connection with the natives, could become 
acquainted with their theology and science. His style is so 
easy and natural that it requires no effort to understand 
him. In brief, his authority is of the first order for the 
study of the antiquities of the country and for information 
of the state in which it was found at the time of the Con- 
quest." 

The most genuine and authentic information as to the lan- 
guages of the tribes also comes to us from the Franciscan 
missionaries; for instance, Father Antonio of Cittareale, amidst 
all the hardships of the apostolate, compiled a complete dic- 
tionary of the Maya language. Father Solano wrote a ser- 
mon for every Sunday in the year, and for all the saints' 
days, in the same language, and composed a portable dic- 
tionary for beginners. Father Torralva did the same. Father 
Coronel published a book of instruction as a summary of 
Christian doctrine and a short grammar. These publications, 
as well as those of Landa and Villalpando, were used and 
are still in use, writes Cogolludo in his "History of Yuca- 
tan," by the priests and lay-brothers. 

Humboldt drew attention to the importance of the accounts 
in his compendium of Hanahuac, which were gathered by 
his brother, Andrew of Olmos, and were transmitted by his 
fellow-worker Mendieta, who, moreover, gives abridged notices 
of several other coUaborateurs. First, Brother Peter Ximenes 
prepared a treatise and vocabulary of the Mexican language. 
He was followed by Brother Torribio Motolinin, who compiled 
a Brief Christiati Doctrine. After Motolinin, Father John 
Ribas wrote in the same language a catechism and a series 
of Sunday conferences for the whole year, then a Flos 
Sanctorum and a Christian Life, in questions and answers, 
while Brother Luis Cisneros published a course of sermons. 



All four belonged to the first twelve who brought the Gos- 
pel to this continent. 

Brother Peter of Ghent wrote a Greater Doctrine in 
Mexican, which was afterwards published, and a book of 
sermons, as well as a course of conferences, with edifying 
examples, suitable for the natives. Brother John St. Francis 
published a similar book of sermons for the same purpose, 
treating of the life and virtues of the saints. Brother Alonzo 
of Herrere, published a grammar and book of sermons for the 
whole year, by Brother Alonzo Rengel, besides a treatise on 
the Otomi language and a catechism. Brother Andrew Olmos, 
who was greatly gifted in languages, compiled dictionaries 
and other books, not only in the Mexican language, but in 
the Totanaca, Guaztec, and other languages of the Chichi- 
mechi, among whom he preached the gospel for a long time, 
exercising over them, as we have said, an extraordinary 
influence. 

Brother Arnold of Basaccio, a Frenchman and a profound 
theologian, left a large number of good sermons in different 
languages, and translated the Epistles and Gospels which are 
read regularly in the Church. His works are much esteemed 
by persons of literary tastes. Brother John of Gaona, who was 
well versed in the Mexican language, was highly gifted and 
wrote extensive treatises, unfortunately lost, with the excep- 
tion of his dialogues, which have been published, and of 
which the language and style surpass in purity and ele- 
gance anything written in that language. He left besides a 
book. Passion of the Saviour. His precious manuscripts 
have nearly all been destroyed by fire. 

What can we say of Brother Bernardino Sahagun ? Besides 
a treatise in the Mexican language and a collection of ser- 
mons for the whole year, as well as a commentary on the 
Gospel, and many other treatises, he wrote a Calapino, so 
called by him, in thirteen folio volumes, in which are to be 
found all the kinds of speech of which the Mexicans made 
use in their communications; and a description of religion, 
education, domestic and social life among them. On account 
of its extent, no translation of it has been undertaken. 
One of the Viceroys took it from him to send it to a cer- 

163 



tain chronicler who had been asking for accounts of the cus- 
toms of the Indians. Father Sahagun never published any 
of his writings, except a collection of airs for the Indians 
to sing at their festivals, having substituted for their heath- 
enish songs the life of Christ and the saints. 

Brother Alonzo Escalona, who was also a ready writer in 
Mexican, left a large number of sermons which are still 
used, and several Commentaries on the Decalogue. Brother 
Alonzo of Molina published a Vocabulary, a detailed Christian 
Doctrine, a Compendium, a Double Confession, a Preparation 
for the Eucharist, and the Life of our Patriarch. He 
translated the Gospels for the Whole Year, the Hours with 
the Saviour, and a large number of prayers and exercises, 
for the use of the natives. Father Luis Rodriguez trans- 
lated with purity and elegance the Proverbs of Solomon and 
the four books of the Conteniptiis Mu7idi; omitting the last 
twenty chapters of the third book, which were afterward 
added by Brother Battista, the guardian of Tezcoco, who 
also corrected the mistakes of the coppst for publication. 

Brother John Romanones wrote a large number of sermons, 
many treatises, and translated many parts of the Bible. 
Brother Maturino Gilberti, a Frenchman, compiled and pub- 
lished a folio volume of the Christian doctrine in the Tar- 
rascan language of Michoacan. This book contains all that a 
Christian needs to know to gain salvation. The first to sim- 
ilarly distinguish himself in the Popolaca of Tecamachalco 
was Brother Francis of Toral, afterwards bishop of Yucatan, 
who wrote a Treatise, a Vocabulary, and other works bear- 
ing on Christian doctrine. A Vocabulary, a Doctrine, and 
many sermons were compiled in the same language by 
Brother Andrew of Castro, the first apostle to the Province of 
Metlazinco, and a Treatise and a Catechism in the Tarras- 
can language were prepared by Brother John Battista of La- 
g^na, who was minister of Michoachan. 

Finally, in the Otomi language. Father Peter Palacios, who 
knew it thoroughly, especially distinguished himself. He 
wrote a Grammar, a Catechism, or Christian Doctrine, for 
the use of the natives. These works were corrected and en- 
larged by Brother Peter Oraz, a distinguished Father of the 

164 



province, to whom we owe much gratitude for other works 
which he left in the Otomi and Mexican languages, of 
which a voluminous Book of Sermons will be published. The 
Mexican language is the most generally spoken in the prov- 
inces of New Spain, but there are many other languages 
differing in every territorj^ and town ; indeed, they are al- 
most numberless, but there are everywhere persons versed 
in the Mexican, which here serves the purpose of Latin in 
Europe. And one need not hesitate to avow the opinion 
that the former language is not less noteworthy than the 
latter, which it even surpasses in the art of word-formation 
by means of its own radicals and expressions by metaphors. 

To say the truth, the perfection of the Mexican language 
has been threatened by familiar and popular use, and each 
day it becomes more corrupt. The Spaniards speak it just 
as the Negroes and ignorant speak Castillian. The Indians 
adopt the Spaniards' manner of speech, forgetting that of 
their forefathers. In a way, Spanish has been partly cor- 
rupted with the words which the conquerors learned here, 
and by the use of the Mexican language. The mingling produces 
a result which renders most difficult the introduction of the 
Christian faith to the natives. 

The story of the later Franciscan missions in America, 
which were as fruitful and efficacious as those of the first 
century, is found in the chronicles of Father Peter Simon, 
a Spaniard, the notable missionary of New Granada, who 
minutely and faithfully describes all the territories, giving a 
history of the advance of Christianity and transformation of 
the country; in the work of Cordova Salinas, another Fran- 
ciscan, who, in 1630, wrote very ample and faithful accounts 
in the "Chronicle" of the Province of San Antonio de los 
Charcas, published in Madrid, 1664, written by Father Diego 
of Mendoza, in which the glowing descriptions of the mis- 
sions to the savages caused a sensation. He took part in 
them, and described in vivid colors the fertile countries and 
their inhabitants, who lived without order or laws, in idle- 
ness in the midst of their luxuriant vegetation. Note must 
be made of the Primaria Seraphica of Brother Apolinare 
of the Conception, who went from Lisbon to Brazil when quite 

i6s 



young, and the Brazilian New Seraphic World, a classical 
work of Brother Antonio of Santa Maria Taboatao, of which 
the Historical and Geographical Institute of Rio Janeiro pub- 
lished the first volume at its own expense, the second being 
printed for the first time in 1858. Among the latest expe- 
ditions in which the Order took part we find the important 
voyage of discover^'- made to the island of Amat, or Tahiti, 
in 1870 and 1S74, by Order of Don Manuel, Viceroy of Peru 
and Chili, accompanied by two Franciscans, Brother Giro- 
lamo Clota and Brother Narcissus Gonzalez, who sailed in 
the ships "Aquila" and "Jupiter," and greatly furthered the 
enterprise by their work and counsel. 

In 1778 Brother Benedict Marin and Juliano Real went 
to reconnoitre the Islands of Guaitecas and Guaineco, to 
which two years afterwards Brothers Francis Menandez and 
Ignacio Bargas made a journey, leaving us a very impor- 
tant diary of their experiences. Brother Menandez in 1791 
took part in an expedition to Nahuelhuapi, of which his ac- 
count is still preserved. In 1790 Brother Narcisso Girbal 
Barcelo at first alone set out exploring the course of 
the Marayaon and Ucayali as far as Manda, from whence, 
with Brother Bonaventura Marquez, he continued his voyage 
to Cumbata. About t8oo some Franciscans ventured to the 
mouth of the Sciguire, and the immortal Humboldt going 
there for scientific exploits found them on the borders of the 
Orinoco and profited by their observations. In our days 
Brother Gesualdo Machetti published notes of the geography 
and natural history of the northern part of Brazil. Brother 
Emmanuel Castrucci, a missionary and traveller in Peru, 
left a description of his trip from Callao to the native 
tribes of Zapari and Givaro. Brother Peter Pellici, mission- 
ary and traveller in China and Bolivia, published important 
accounts of the latter; and Brother Joseph Arnich discov- 
ered the Caroline Islands in the Pacific. There is besides 
an excellent history left us of the Franciscan missions in 
the Andes. 

As in South America, so in North America, the fruitful 
work of the Franciscans is preserved for reference. It 
suffices to cite Father Diego Urtiaga, a companion of the 



venerable Antonio Margil in the missions of Choi, whose 
diary of his travels with four of his fellow-workers from 
Queretaro to Guatemala was published in 1694. Father John 
Dias, who traversed the Gila and Colorado with Captain 
John Battista Ansa about 1773 to California and thence to 
Sonora, wrote a diary of his journey, one of the most im- 
portant undertaken in these regions. Father John Crespi in 
1774 took part in the expedition of the frigate "Santiago" 
along the Pacific coast towards Northern California, and 
gave an interesting and explicit account of it ; and in the 
same year, accompanied by Father Peter Font and Francis 
Garces, he went to the harbor of San Francisco and Monte- 
rey, returning in 1779. Of all these travels we possess 
diaries which are most serviceable in geographical research. 

Equally important are the diaries left by Father Garces, 
who was an accurate observer, not the least important be- 
ing the account of his excursions in the Province of Mopir, 
a plan of which he designed and drew on paper. Father 
Peter Font, who, as we have said, took part in the expedi- 
tion to the port of San Francisco, and who had been 
chiefly charged with the duty of preserving an account of 
the places visited, drew a map of the journey, which with 
his diary proved to be most interesting. He was the last 
one, says Humboldt, who visited Casas Grandes. Shortly 
after this expedition Father Velez Escalante and Francis 
Atanasio Dominguez started out to explore new districts in 
the northeast of Mexico, and of the roads they travelled 
they wrote an ample and descriptive account. They began 
their journey on the 29th of July, 1776, finishing it on the 
3d of January of the following year. At that time Father 
Augustin Morfi made a geographical map of the district of 
Zacatecas. 

As the Franciscans were associated with the immortal 
Columbus in the efforts that led to the discovery of 
America, so have they been equally zealous in continviing 
discoveries and laboring for the regeneration of the New 
World after his death. How they have performed this re- 
ligious and civil apostolate appears to-day in all its re- 
splendent light, from the extensive collection of documents 

167 



recovered and collected day by day, some of which are in 
course of publication in Spain and America, but to make 
all of them public will require much time, there being such 
an abundance of precious documents that a large library 
would not suffice to hold them all. And as the discovery 
of the New World stamps the name of the intrepid navi- 
gator, Columbus, indelibly in the memory of nations, so 
the names of the sons of the patriarch of Assisi are writ- 
ten indelibly in the names and histories of the oceans, 
islands, rivers, villages, mountains, cities, towns, and all the 
yet savage parts of the Western Continent. 



i68 



AD! 




^o, has 

.; , .-iUM.^,,, i<j Fathe* • 
respect for a saintly man v 

^ ! %)«WM>r. op'^:a'stilh. kathhr of Isabella. 

ijL, From , Joannis Mariana's Historia de Rebus Hispaniae, pub- 

j,^ , lished at the Hague in 1733. 

f John was the son of Henry HI. of Castile and Catherine 

Vl.i^'^^ Lancaster, succeeded to the throne in 1406 and died 
town J^^y 21, 1454, after a reign of forty-eight years which was 
the rfUstinguished as the golden age in Castilian literature. He 
Serra 1^^'""®'! first Maria, of Aragon and afterward Isabella of 
Portugal, who became the mother of Isabella. 



Jay, and he ga-. 

■■■■-'■ . The :- .- . 
and is 



wee Urcat 



ADDENDA TO THE FRANCISCAN PAPER. 




piE history of the work of the Order of St. Francis 
on the Pacific Coast, particularly in Upper Cali- 
fornia, properly belongs to the age succeeding 
the Columbus discoveries and the early religious 
missions to America ; but the recent honors 
paid by citizens of the United States, not of the Catholic 
faith, to the founder of the California missions, craves 
attention in connection with the preceding paper. From 
a late publication,* we learn that Mrs. Leland Stanford, 
of San Francisco, has presented to the city of Monterey 
a monument to Father Junipero Serra as a mark of her 
respect for a saintly man who, through toil and suffering, 
carried the saving grace of faith to thousands of benighted 
Indians. The monument was unveiled on June 3, 1891, 
in the presence of fully five thousand people. It stands on 
a commanding height on the military reservation, not far 
from the old fort which Fremont held at the time the 
United States flag was unfurled and the Spanish-California 
town became American. It is scarcely a stone-throw from 
the old wooden cross which marks the spot where Father 
Serra landed in 1770. It is picturesquely located, the sight 
commanding a fine view of Monterey Bay and city and the 
exquisite country back of it. With a consideration which 
deserves special mention, a Franciscan Father, the Very 
Rev. Clementine Deymann, was selected as the orator of the 
day, and he gave an eloquent account of Father Junipero and his 
work. The monument represents the landing of the 
missionary, and is crowned with an imposing statue of the 
priest clad in the robes of his Order and the stole, one hand 
clasping his book and the other lifted in the act of benediction. 

* Catholic Home Almanac for 1892, "In Memory of Three Great 
Catholics." 

169 



To understand the great esteem in which Father Junipero 
and his work are held on the Pacific Coast, we may recur 
to a series of interesting papers by a distinguished Ameri- 
can author.* The writer acknowledges her indebtedness to 
the celebrated historian H. H. Brancroft, of San Francisco, 
who placed at her disposal all the resources of his invalu- 
able library, and also to the superior of the Franciscan 
College in Santa Barbara for the loan of important books 
and manuscripts. The missionary was born in the island of 
Majorca, and entered the Franciscan Order at the age of 
sixteen, taking his final vows two years later, in 1730. 
His baptismal name, Michael Joseph, was laid aside, and he 
assumed the name of Junipero, after an early companion of St. 
Francis of Assisi. In 1749 he received permission to join 
the band of missionaries assembled in Cadiz and destined 
for Mexico. He landed in Vera Cruz, and for nineteen 
years labored in Mexico, and in 1767 was sent to Lower 
California, being put in charge and appointed president 
of all the California missions. From there expeditions 
were sent to Upper California, and the first halted at a 
place they named Espiritu Santo, very near the ridge 
where now runs the boundary line between the United 
States and Mexico. This was on JMay 14th, 1769, and the 
pilgrims there sang the first Christian hymn heard on 
California's shores. The mission of San Diego was founded 
there on July i6th, 1769, and the corner-stone thus laid 
of the civilization of California. 



Incalculable hardships, well depicted by the author, at- 
tended the expedition from San Diego to Monterey and the 
return, which occupied six months and ten days. Sickness and 
disappointment so affected the spirits of the Spanish comman- 
der of the expedition that he resolved to abandon it, in spite 
of Father Junipero's entreaties, and fixed the 20th of March 

* " H. H.," Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, in The CetiUiry Magazine for May, June, 
and August, 1883. 



as the day of departure, should no supplies arrive from 
Mexico by that time. The day was the Feast of St. Joseph, 
and in the morning Father Junipero, who had been praying 
night and day for weeks, celebrated High Mass with spe- 
cial supplications for relief. Before noon a sail was seen 
on the horizon, appearing for a few minutes and then 
vanishing from sight. It was believed to be an apparition, 
but four days afterwards the San Antonio came in, bringing 
bountiful stores of all that was needed. The sea and land 
expeditions to Monterey were then undertaken and success 
crowned their efforts on June ist. Before his death, in 
1784, he had founded nine missions : San Diego in 1769, Mon- 
terey 1770, San Antonio 1771, San Gabriel 1771, San Luis 
Obispo 1772, San B'rancisco 1776, San Juan Capistrano 1776, 
Santa Clara 1777, Buena Ventura 1782. Many interesting 
incidents are recorded in connection with the establishment 
of these first missions. At San Gabriel the Indians gathered 
in great force, and were about to attack the little band of 
ten soldiers and two friars who had begun to plant their 
cross ; but on the unfurling of a banner with a life-size 
picture of the Virgin painted on it they flung away their 
bows and arrows, came running towards the banner with 
gestures of reverence and delight, and threw their bows 
and other ornaments on the ground before it as at the feet 
of a suddenly recognized queen. The San Carlos Mission 
at Monterey was Father Junipero's particular charge. There 
he spent all his time when not called away by his duties 
as president of the missions ; there he died and there he 
was buried. There also his beloved friend and brother 
Father Crespi labored by his side for thirteen years, a san- 
guine, joyous man, sometimes called El Beato from his 
happy temperament. 



Father Crespi died at the age of sixty years, having spent 
half of them in laboring for the Indian. Father Serro lived 
only two years longer. For many years he had been a 
great sufferer from an affection of the heart aggravated by 
his excessive zeal. When he preached he was carried out 

171 



of himself by the fervor of his desire to impress his hearers. 
Baring his breast he would beat it violently with a stone 
or burn the flesh with a lighted torch to enhance the effect 
of his descriptions of the tortures of hell. There is in his 
memoirs a curious engraving showing him lifted high above 
a group of listeners, holding in his hands the blazing torch 
and the stone. Like all the missionaries he presented an 
indomitable front to the military authorities in protecting 
the missions and the Indian converts, whose deepest affec- 
tions and confidence he won by his untiring labors. It was 
his habit to spend all the time with them not required for 
the offices of the Church, laboring by their side in the 
fields, making adobe, digging and sharing, in short, all the 
labors required of them. 

After his death the founding of missions continued until 
in 1804 the occupation of the sea-coast line from San Fran- 
cisco to San Diego was complete, there being nineteen mis- 
sion establishments only a day's journey apart. That of 
Santa Barbara was founded in 1786, La Purissima 1787, 
Santa Cruz 1791, Soledad 1791, San Jose 1797, San Juan 
Bautista 1797, San Miguel 1797, San Fernando Rey, 1797, 
San Luis Rey 1797, San Luis Rey de Francia 1798, Santa 
Inez 1804. 



All the missions comprised buildings on a large scale pro- 
viding for hundreds of occupants, for all the necessary trades 
and manufactures, and for many of the ornamental arts of 
civilized life. Enormous tracts of land were under high cul- 
tivation, the grape and fruits of the temperate zone flour- 
ishing in the marvellous California air side by side with the 
grape, fig, orange and pomegranate. Vast flocks of sheep 
and herds of cattle and horses were gathered everywhere, 
and in the nineteen missions were twenty thousand Indians 
leading regular and industrious lives, and conforming to the 
usages of the Catholic religion. A description of the San 
Luis Rey mission written by De Mofras, an attachee of the 
French Legation in Mexico, in 1842, gives some idea of the 
form and methods of the mission establishments. " The 



building is a quadrilateral, 450 feet square ; the church oc- 
cupies one of its wings ; the fa9ade is ornamented with a 
gallery. The building is two stories in height. The inte- 
rior is formed by a court ornamented with fountains and 
decorated with trees. Upon the gallery which runs around 
it open the dormitories of the monks, of the major-domos 
and of travellers, small work-shops, school-rooms and store- 
rooms. The hospitals are situated in the most quiet parts of 
the mission, where also the schools are kept. The young Indian 
girls dwell in halls called monasteries, and are called nuns. 
Placed under the care of Indian matrons who are worthy 
of confidence, they learn to make cloth of wool, cotton and 
flax, and do not leave the monastery until they are old 
enough to be married. The Indian children mingle in schools 
with those of the white colonists. A certain number, chosen 
among the pupils who display the most intelligence, learn 
music, chanting, the violin, flute, horn, violoncello or other 
instruments. Those who distinguish themselves in the car- 
penter shop, at the forge, or in agricultural labors are ap- 
pointed alcaldes or overseers, and charged with the direc- 
tion of the laborers." Stirrounding these buildings, or arranged 
in regular streets upon one side of them, were the homes 
of the Indian families. At every mission were walled gar- 
dens with waving palms and sparkling fountains, groves of 
olive trees, broad vineyards, and orchards of all manner of 
fruits. 



The revolutions in Mexico at last destroyed the California 
missions. In 1834, the edict for their sequestration was 
issued, making the mission establishments state property, 
and fastening upon them Administrators under whom the 
wealth of the missions disappeared, as dew vanishes in the 
sun. It was under pretence of caring for the Indians that 
this sequestration was enforced, but the Administrators be- 
came merciless task-masters, under whom the poor mission 
Indians were compelled to work harder than before, and were 
ill-fed and ill-treated, being hired out in gangs to work in 
towns or on farms, itnder masters who simply regarded 



them as beasts of burden. A more pitiable sight has not 
often been seen on earth than the great body of these help- 
less dependent creatures suddenly deprived of their teachers 
and protectors, thrown on their own resources, and at the 
mercy of rapacious and unscrupulous communities in times 
of revolution. The Administrators soon ran all the missions 
hopelessly into debt ; they were made subject to the laws of 
bankruptcy, and the property was put up for sale. When 
the war between the United States and Mexico broke out, 
the Mexican government authorized the sale of the missions 
to raise money to defend the country against the United 
States, and, under this authorization, the property was sold 
right and left for insignificant sums, or abandoned without 
care. Most of the mission churches and establishments are 
now but heaps of ruins. 



Turning from the melancholy picture of the forcible dis- 
persion of the Franciscans and the consequent destruction 
of the California missions, we may conclude with the cheer- 
ing account of an occurrence which gives a gleam of hope 
for the future. At the time when the world prepared to 
celebrate in the great city of the west the Discovery of 
Columbus, the denizens of the still farther west, the Pacific 
Coast, were celebrating the rededication of one of the 
greatest of the Californian missions — that of San Luis Rey, 
the description of which by De Mofras, as he saw it in 1840, 
has been quoted above. We are indebted to Mr. Henry 
G. Spaulding for a spirited account of ' ' The San Luis Rey 
Mission ; its past history and its rededication."* 

" The rededication of the old Franciscan Mission of San 
Luis Rey, which took place on the 12th of the present 
month, was an event of peculiar interest. Ninety-five years 
ago, in the presence of a large number of Indians, this 
establishment, the seventeenth of the twenty-one missions 
founded in California by the Franciscan Fathers, was for- 
mally dedicated to St. Louis, King of France, San Luis 

* Correspondence of the New York Evening Post, from Oceanside, Cal., 
May 15, 1893. 



Rey de Francia. Within two years it received over 300 
Indians into the Church, and hundreds of horses, cattle, 
and sheep roamed its extensive pastures. In a decade more 
the number of its duskj^ neophytes had increased to 3,000 ; 
the average annual yield of its grain fields amounted to over 
20,000 bushels, while its sales of hides and tallow brought 
an ever-increasing income. This material wealth was fully 
matched by the spiritual prosperity of the mission. Under 
the care of the wise and benevolent Superior, Padre Antonio 
Peyri, the Indians were not only ' converted,' they were also 
taught every variety of industry. The admirably constructed 
buildings of the mission itself still testify to the skill of 
the Indian masons and carpenters. The period during which 
these Franciscan friars were colonizing California and Chris- 
tianizing thousands of its aboi-igines was in a very real 
sense a pastoral age. The type of civilization was that of 
a patriarchal communism, and under no other system prac- 
tised on this continent was so much accomplished towards 
lifting a race of savages to the heights of stable character. 

"All this and much besides in the way of reminiscence 
was suggested by the recent ceremony at San Luis Rey, 
whereby a new order succeeds, while it also in part re- 
stores, the old. Once more, as in the later decades of the 
last century, the Franciscan Fathers have come hither from 
Mexico ; not now, as formerly, to colonize a terra incognita 
and convert unknown heathen tribes, but to carry on, under 
conditions denied them in the Mexican Republic, the work 
of training novices for their Order. Incidental to this educa- 
tional aim is the purpose of the founders of the novitiate to 
resume some of the home missionary labors which the padres 
engaged in a century ago. 

" The modern visitor to the ancient mission leaves the 
railroad at Oceanside, a thriving village in San Diego 
County, eighty-five miles south of Los Angeles. At this 
season the six miles' drive over the rolling hills is a most 
delightful journey. The whole country, refreshed by the 
abundant rains, is clothed in living green, save where the 
late spring flowers bestrew the meadows or the rich yellow 
bloom of the wild mustard lying in irregular patches on the 

17s 



hillsides suggests fields of ' the cloth of gold.' Mocking- 
birds and meadow larks fill the air with their matin-songs, 
and the widening view as we ascend takes in more 
and more of the ocean and of the billowy mountain 
ranges. At length we come in sight of the old mission 
church with its single Spanish tower and the long roofless 
corridors of round Roman arches. Beautifully situated, in 
'a basin of sierras,' on a little knoll above the broad valley 
of the San Luis Rey River, the walls of the mission retain 
enough of the warm tints once laid upon them to make 
them thoroughly in harmony with the surrounding land- 
scape. 

"Architecturally considered, a California mission is a unique 
structure. If we call its style Spanish, we give little clue 
to its appearance, as most Spanish architecture is an un- 
certain mixture of Roman and Moorish elements. Besides, 
in California a century ago these elements were variously 
modified by the taste of the priestly architects and the 
peculiar nature of the building materials. The piers of the 
arches were made of heavy bricks, but the walls were all of 
adobe. Over their rough surfaces the masons laid a thick 
coat of stucco, which was painted along the corridors in 
bright colors and on the fagade in a warm buff tint. Of 
the original appearance of this particular mission we are 
fortunate in having a graphic pen-picture in the interesting 
work of the French traveller, De Mofras. Unfortunately the 
fine engraving which accompanies De Mofras's text gives 
the structure a greater regularity than could ever have 
belonged to it. De Mofras visited San Luis Rey in 1840; but 
Don Antonio F. Coronel, who is now living in Los Angeles, 
was there before that date and spent much time at this 
mission. The two bell-towers which De Mofras's artist places 
on the front of the church belong to an ideal construction. 
Don Coronel assures me that there was never but the single 
tower which rose on the east front of the building, an 
architectural feature which is characteristic of nearly all the 
other mission churches in California. 

"The roof of the church was made of coarse red tiles 
laid upon a network of tule reeds tied to the rafters by bits 

176 



of rawhide. The huge cross-beams which the Indians brought 
from the mountain forests, forty miles away, remain in 
position, but in many places the roof has fallen in. Within 
the ruined mortuary chapel — once a handsome dome-crowned 
structure — lizards have crawled and owls have screeched in 
undisturbed seclusion. Of the corridors that once surrounded 
the court of three acres, long lines of the Roman arches still 
remain on the inner sides, giving a picturesque grandeur 
to the scene hardly to be found anywhere else outside of 
Italy. On the front the arches have nearly all disappeared. 
A small fragment of brick latticework may still be seen 
where the ancient colonnade joined the fagade of the church, 
a reminder of the balustrade that formerly extended around 
the entire gallery from which in the days of old the 
Spaniards 

' . . . . and their dames 
Viewed the games,' 

when the bull-fights were carried on in the spacious quad- 
rangle below. These corridors originally opened to the 
dormitories of the monks and major-domos, the workshops, 
storehouses, schoolrooms, and hospitals. Here were also the 
guest-chambers for travellers, who were always most 
hospitably entertained by the good padres. A large and 
accurate model of the entire mission was recently made in 
Los Angeles by Don Coronel, and Senora Coronel, and is 
now on exhibition at the World's Fair in Chicago. 

" The ceremonials at the rededication could hardly be called 
imposing, but they were highly picturesque, and to all con- 
versant with the history of the Mission they were most im- 
pressive. The old church, or rather its long nave (the fine 
apse and the transepts being unfit for occupation), had been 
put in order for the occasion. A temporary ceiling of thick 
board hid the rents in the roof where the heavy red tiles 
are pressing through. On the newly-swept uneven adobe 
floor a few rude benches and chairs had been placed for the 
comfort of the better class of the expected visitors. For the 
celebrants, a plain altar had been erected at the further end 
of the nave, the extemporized sanctuary was neatly carpeted, 
and on the west side near the ancient pulpit was placed 



the Bishop's throne overhung with crimson drapery. Vases 
of flowers, including some of the rosas de Castillas, which 
so rejoiced the heart of Father Palou when he entered Cali- 
fornia in the eventful days of 1769, were placed among the 
lighted candles on the altar, and through the open doors and 
windows streamed the sunlight of the bright May morning. 

"Slowly a motley congregation gathered within the walls. 
American residents of Los Angeles, Oceanside, and San Diego 
mingled with Eastern tourists eager to witness the unusual 
ceremony. Members of the old Castilian families of Bandini and 
Del Valle and other wealthy Spaniards came, bringing their 
satin prayer-cushions and richly-colored rugs, while the 
humbler Mexicans from the neighborhood knelt by their side 
on the coarse blankets which they had brought. A few In- 
dians from the rancheria across the river, wearing red ker- 
chiefs and shawls, gave a dash of bright color to the scene; 
while, standing at one of the side doors, cap in hand, was 
the inevitable beggar, a veteran ' native ' with wooden leg, 
ragged garments, and wrinkled visage. Nearer the entrance, 
squat like toads on the cold adobe, were three aged squaws 
whose childhood had been spent at the ^Mission in the good 
times when Father Peyri ruled the place. The witches in 
Macbeth could not have looked worse than these hideous 
hags ; one of whom, reputed to be a centenarian, faintly 
remembered the good padre, who, she said, was ever kind 
to the poor Indians. Moving about among the throng, the 
pushing photographer brought his camera close to the very 
sanctuary, while newspaper reporters, with note-books rest- 
ing on their kodaks, kept up a whispered conversation and 
took snap-shots at every object which attracted their notice. 

"At length Father O'Keefe, from the Santa Barbara Mis- 
sion, clad in his coarse brown cowl and stole, enters the 
church and in his capacity as master of ceremonies makes 
a path through the crowd for the procession of the clergy. 
Preceded by three novices. Bishop Mora, of Los Angeles, 
in his purple robe leads the way, followed by Fathers 
Adam, Meyer, and Dye of the same city. Then come 
the Franciscan padres from Guadalupe, in Mexico, dressed 
in the sombre gray gowns and cowls of their Order, Father 

178 



Alva, Commissary-General ; Father Tiscareiio, his secretary ; 
the aged Father Alverez (with a countenance as mild and 
benignant as that of St. Francis himself) ; Father Martinez 
and Ocegueda, and Father Ambrose Malabeher, the Supe- 
rior of the new college, a monk whose features and man- 
ner bespoke the ardent and self-sacrificing devotee. High 
Mass was at once begun, many of the congregation kneel- 
ing on the blankets and rugs they had brought with them. 
In the old choir just over the entrance, reached by a flight 
of broken steps on the outside of the church, an excellent 
orchestra and quartet from San Diego rendered the music 
of Farmer's Mass in B flat, and an Agnus Dei by Haydn. 
The sermon was preached in Spanish by the Father Supe- 
rior, who took for his text a passage from Ezekiel, describ- 
ing the return of the Jews from their long exile. Father 
Malabeher dwelt pathetically on the poverty of the Fran- 
ciscans in Mexico, and on the persecutions they had suffered, 
and expressed his joy and gratitude that here in California 
the friars were permitted to teach and labor under such 
pleasant conditions. This permission, he said, they had re- 
ceived through the gracious favor of his Holiness the Pope, 
and Bishop Mora, of the diocese of Monterey and Los An- 
geles. Father Tiscareno then read in Latin the canonical in- 
stitution of the new mission. The interesting services were 
concluded by the formal investment of three youthful pos- 
tulants with the robes of the Order, and the proclamation 
of the patron saints, San Luis Rey, patron of the Mission, 
and Nuestra Seiiora de Guadelupe, patroness of the novi- 
tiate. Then, to the strains of Mendelssohn's ' March of the 
Priests,' from ' Athalie,' the assembly dispersed, and the an- 
cient mission was dedicated to its new uses." 



r>] HMP.ii' 



publican " 
by hip 

AV- KHRDINANI) AND ISABHLLA. 

or. 

;. j. .^Fiuiu Jt>anuis Marian^! s jiistoria de Rebus Hispauiac, pnb- 

of tife*^'''^ ^t ^^^ Hague,, Ml ,1,733. 

also pnT^^y ■^'^'^'^ married October 19, 1469, when she was nine- 
sus t^Xi axid^.hev husbsLnd eighteen years of age. She ascend - 
ole(. ed the thjone of Castile in 1474 and he that of Aragon in 
3p.: 1479, when, they thus became monarchs of united Spain. 
While their reign was marked by the most splendid vic- 
tories and successes in every imdertaking, the queen was 
' noted for her unfeigned humility, the most striking proof 
brati.Q^ her constant piety ; for her magnanimity and justice and 
TeviGYiefr endo^^''ment of hospitals, churches and convents. Ferdi- 
^*^'^ iVahH'^wks wise, prudent and sagacious and indefatigable in 
ordtirg^j,|^.^j,jv ■■ ^^(^ j.(, j^^jj.^ g^jjfl equitable to the subjects from 
^^^-"•whom he derived his revenues that he amassed no treasure, 
^P°' and though practising the strictest frugality, died so poor 
Coiun^^, his c6ffers 'scarciely suflliced to pay his funeral expenses, 
quarior? -■. •■ -'■ a" ■ ' ' . • • •■- ■ a..' 

upon 1 y\ti 

Pinta. 



The 
Cobo t,- 
Fi y Cnile, by iJifv 



COLUMBUS CENTENNIAL LITERATURE. 




[OR some account of publications abroad, induced 

by the general disposition to fittingly celebrate the 

four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of 

America, we are indebted to Mr. Juan F. Riaiio, 

in the London Athenceutn* He mentions the 

publication at Seville, in Spanish, of the " Life of Columbus," 

by his son Ferdinand, of which an Italian translation by 

Alfonso de Ulloa was printed at Venice in 1571. As the 

original manuscript of the history has wholly disappeared, 

it is assumed that the new Spanish edition is a translation 

of the Italian. A barrister of Seville, Jose Maria Asensio, 

also published in 1892 Crist oval Colon, sii Vida, sus Vz'ajos, 

sus Descubrtniientos, in two volumes folio, illustrated with 

oleographs after Balaca, Madrazo, Munoz, Degrain, Rosales 

and other distinguished artists. 

* 
* * 

The Spanish committee for organizing the Centennial Cele- 
bration of 1892 {Junta Directiva) issued an illustrated 
review, the Centenario, dealing with all subjects connected 
with Columbus and the discovery, and containing the royal 
orders and official documents relating to the present Cente- 
nary. This publication has done most for the cause. Essays 
upon the vexed question as to which of the Lucayas 
Columbus named San Salvador, have appeared in different 
quarters, as well as a number of works upon Columbus and 
upon Pinzon, the owner and commander of the caraval La 
Pinta, one of the fleet of the discoverer. 

* 
* * 

The piiblication of the Historia del Nuevo Mundo, by 

Cobo (1645); Origin de los Indios del Peru, Mexico, Santa 

Fd y Chile, by Diego Andr6s Rocha; De las Gentes del 

* July, 1892. July, 1893. 
181 



Peru, by Las Casas ; Noticias Authentic as del famoso Rio 
Maranon, by the Royal Geographical Society of Spain in 
their periodical Boletin ; and the appearance of the second 
edition, revised, of Colon y la Rabida, by Father Jose 
Coll, have marked the Centennial year ; and the Spanish 
ardor for information concerning all the national discoveries 
and settlements has produced a remarkable number of works 
upon those subjects. 



The Duchess of Berwick and Alba (Countess of Siruela in 
her own right) has published, in folio, Autografos de 
Cristobal Colon y Papeles de America, containing several 
original letters of the great navigator and of his sons 
Diego and Fernando. They were discovered in the archives of 
her family, which the duchess has thrown open to historical 
students of all nations. The appearance of a poem, Cristobal 
Colon, by Lamarque de Novoa (Juan), with a preface by Jose 
Maria Asensio, y Toledo, is worthy of mention, together with 
Colon y los Reyes Catolicos, by the Marquis de Hoyos; 
Colon y Bovadilla y la Ingratitud de Espana, by Louis 
Vidart; La P atria de Colon segun los documentos de 
las Ordernes Militares, by F. R. Vhagon (the official 
document quoted by him states the birthplace of Columbus 
to be Savona); Pinzon eti el Descubrimieiito de las Indias, 
by Cesares Fernandez Duro ; Martin Alonso Pinzon, 
Estudio historico, by Jose Maria Asensio ; and Fuentes 
historicas sobre Colon y Afnerica, by Joaquin Torres 
Asensio, who intends giving in subsequent volumes a 
Spanish translation of all the works in which Columbus and 
his voyages are first mentioned. He begins with that of 
Peter Martyr of Anghiera (a town on the south bank of 
Lake Maggiore), published in 1510; but all passages of this 
writer referring to Columbus have been reproduced in 
almost every European language. The treatises of 
Palacios Rubios, however, are yet unpublished, and the 
Latin letters of Lucius Marinseus Siculus have never been 
translated. 

183 



The Congress of Americanists assembled at Huelva and 
La Rabida in October, 1492, produced essays contributing 
powerfully to the eulogies of Columbus, but their papers 
were not limited to his discovery and covered a wide range. 
A few of the more remarkable were : an ethnographical 
and archaeological account of one of the provinces of New 
Granada ; the Tribute Rolls of Montezuma (part i) and Fur- 
ther Notes on the Fuegian Language, both by Dr. D. G. 
Brinton of the United States ; Pdginas histdricas de la Re- 
publica Oriental del Uruguay, by Matias Alonso Criado ; 
Diccionario biografico nacional 6 Historia de la Literatura 
Chilena, by Pedro Pablo Figueroa ; and several more. The 
Indian languages were :iot forgotten at the congress. Na- 
hitatlismos de Costa Rica, by Juan Fernandez Ferraz, is a 
dictionary of the Mexican words introduced into the vernac- 
ular language of Costa Rica. The Lenguas indigenas de 
Ainerica, or bibliographical dictionary of works relating to 
the various languages or dialects spoken in North and South 
America, gained for its author, Count de la Viiiaza, the 
annual prize of the National Library of Madrid. D. Fran- 
cisco Fernandez y Gonzalez, well known by his translations 
from the Arabic and Hebrew and noted for an interesting 
lecture on the languages of Northern and Central America, 
has published his researches on Los Lengttages iftdlgettos 
del Norte y Centra de America in a small folio volume of 
112 closely printed pages. 

* 
* * 

Mention is made by Mr. Riaiio of the important discovery, 
by accident, of three large quarto volumes of manuscript 
entirely in the writing of Las Casas, the venerated mis- 
sionary and Bishop of Chiapa, who deposited them in the 
library of San Gregorio in Valladolid, where he passed his 
declining years. There they remained until the suppression 
of the monasteries in 1836, when the books of the convent 
were dispersed and these volumes fell into the hands of a 
private collector. They contain the well-known Historia 
apologetica de las Indias, of which at least three other 

X83 



copies are known to exist, and which were published some years 
ago in the Documentos indditos para la Historia de Espaiia. 

* 

* * 

To a critical review in the Athenceum we are indebted 
for a discussion of three important English publications, a 
monograph on "The Discovery of North America" by Mr. 
Henry Harrisse ; a volume of "The World's Great Explorers," 
by Clements R. Markham, devoted to Christopher Columbus; 
and "The Career of Columbus," by Charles J. Elton ; as well 
as of the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 
devoted to the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci. The fact is 
recalled that an alleged letter of Vespucci printed in Dutch 
at Antwerp in 1508 (12 leaves) by Jan Van Doesborch has 
been brought to light. It is addressed to "Mijn vrient 
Lauerenti Ick Albericus" — supposed to be Lorenzo di Pier 
Francisco de Medici — and a fac-simile with English transla- 
tion is announced. It is interesting to note here the editor's 
statement that Vespucci is now generally acquitted of any 
thought of giving his own name to the new continent re- 
vealed by the discoveries of Columbus ; but that the fault 
is due to those who drew the first charts of the New World. 
A letter from M. J. E. Hamy, keeper of the Ethnographical 
Museum of Paris, to the eighth Congress of Americans at 
Huelva and published in the 21st volume of the Boletin of 
the Royal Academy of History, contains proof of the fact. 

* 

* * 

Note is made by Mr. Markham in his history of the difference 
between the filial regard which animated the son of Columbus 
in preserving all that could elevate his father's fame, and the 
manner in which the son of John Cabot, in the history of his 
discoveries, ignored the position and services of his father ; 
and that all the confusion which, according to Dr. Charles 
Deane in his "Narrative and Critical History of America," ex- 
ists concerning the respective achievements of the Cabots is to 
be ascribed to the failure of biographers to observe that the 
honors usually awarded to Sebastian belong to his father. The 
editor of the Aihencstivi, however, very properly observes that 
the fault may lie, not with Sebastian, but the biographers. 

184 



THE PORTRAITS OF COLUMBUS. 




T is said that there is no authentic portrait of 
Columbus, and the opinion of the best judges upon 
the conflicting claims made for the many reputed 
pictures of the great explorer will be found in 
the remarks accompanying the plates in this vol- 
ume. The reader perhaps may not iind uninteresting the 
contemporary descriptions of the Admiral referred to by the 
latest writer on the subject of Columbus portraits.* His son, 
Fernando, says : "The Admiral was a well made man, of a 
height above the medium, with a long face, and cheek-bones 
somewhat prominent ; neither too fat nor too lean. He had 
an aquiline nose, light-colored eyes, and a ruddy complexion. 
In his youth he had been fair, and his hair was of a light 
color, but after he was thirty years old it turned white." 

The author of the " History of the Indies," Gonzales Fer- 
nandez de Oviedo y Valdes, who was fifteen years old, and 
serving as page to Queen Isabella when Columbus returned 
from his first voyage, writes of the navigator: "He had a 
noble bearing, good looks, and a height above the medium, 
which was well carried. He had sharp eyes, and the other 
parts of his visage were well proportioned. His hair was 
a bright red, his complexion flushed and marked with 
freckles. His language was easy, prudent, showing a great 
genius, and he was gracious in manner." 

The author of Historia de los Reyes Catholicos, Andrea 
Bemaldez, with whom Columbus made his home for months 
at a time, wrote : " Columbus was a man of fine stature, 
strong of limb, with an elongated visage, fresh and ruddy, 
of complexion marked with freckles. He had a noble bear- 
ing, was dignified of speech, and bore a kindly manner." 

* Mr. William E. Curtis, United States Commissioner in charge of the 
Latin-American Department of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. 
See his papers in The Cosmopolitan magazine, January and February, 1892. 

18s 



Las Casas, " the apostle to the Indies," an intimate friend 
of Columbus, states that the Admiral had red hair and 
freckles, keen, gray eyes, an aquiline nose, a large mouth, 
and a sad expression of countenance, which was the result 
of much mental suffering. That he was unusually reticent, 
but spoke with great fei-vor and fluency when so inclined. 

A rude vignette drawing, on the first chart made of the 
West Indies, representing St. Christopher bearing the Christ- 
child across a stream as in the legend, is supposed to sym- 
bolize Columbus carrying Christianity to the New World. 
It was drawn by La Cosa, the pilot of Columbus, in 1500, 
and possibly the artist intended to give the saint the feat- 
ures of Columbus. So far as known, this is the first por- 
trait of the Admiral, and represents a bearded man not at 
all resembling any existing painting claimed to be a portrait 
of Columbus. 

The Paolo Giovio and the Capriolo engravings (reproduced 
in this volume), and acknowledged by American and Spanish 
authorities to be the most reliable pictures of the great 
man, can be traced in many supposed originals. Among 
them is the Yafiez portrait, copied for Governor Fairchild, 
U. S. Minister at Madrid in 1882, and presented to the 
Wisconsin State Historical Society, and the Medici or 
Altissitno portrait, copied for President Jefferson when 
American Minister in Paris, and recently found in the 
Massachusetts Historical Society. Both are probably copies 
of the Giovio portrait. A copy of the Giovio portrait — if not 
the original itself — is in the possession of Dr. Alexander de 
Orchi, of Como, and of this picture the New York State 
Librarian, Dr. George R. Howell, says: "At all events, 
this portrait fills out our expectations of an ideal Columbus, 
and expresses a man who could do all that Columbus did 
in divining the existence of a new world, and persuading 
others to his convictions, and in surmounting all the ob- 
stacles he encountered, moral and physical, from Genoa to 
Cuba. It is a portrait that grows on one. The upper half 
of the face bears a remarkable resemblance to our own 
Washington. It shows the repose of strength and reserve 
power, and, take it all in all, is by far the best ideal 

x86 



presentation of the face we expect to see in a genuine 
portrait of Columbus." The history of the Giovio portrait is 
given in the letter-press accompanying it. 

The Italian copper-plate called the Capriolo portrait 
is thought to be from the Giovio portrait, and ranks, as has 
been said, with the latter engraving in the estimation of good 
judges. The Hon. Charles P. Daly, President of the 
American Geographical Society, has examined the claims 
with respect to the alleged portraits of Columbus, and speak- 
ing of the committee appointed by the Madrid Geographical 
Society at the request of the Spanish Government to ascer- 
tain if there were any reliable portrait of Columbus in 
Spain, and what was known upon the subject, he states* 
that the result of their labors was "the general endorse- 
ment on the sheriff's writ, 'nothing found';" and that little 
of value has been added since in the way of historical in- 
quiry or commentary; that the committee brought the Paul 
Jovius woodcut to light, or rather the Paul Jovius inquiry, 
and were of the opinion that the Italian steel-engraving in 
the Ritratti Cento Capitani Illtistri (Capriolo portrait) is 
the most satisfactory of all, in which opinion he concurs. 

An alleged portrait of Columbus hangs in the New York 
Senate chamber at Albany. It was presented to the State 
in 1784 by Mrs. Maria Farmer, a granddaughter of Jacob 
Leisler, Governor of New York in 1689. Professor James T. 
Butler, author of an exhaustive paper on the portraits of 
Columbus, states that this picture is not now generally 
deemed authentic. The same criticism applies to the portrait 
by Parmzgzano (reproduced in this volume), of which a copy 
was presented by Judge Barton to the American Antiquarian 
Society in Worcester, Mass. The Spanish painter and art critic, 
Carderera, in giving the g^-ound of his doubt that this was 
intended as a portrait of Columbus, notes " the contrast between 
the garb and austere aspect of our hero, and the exquisite and 
effeminate decorations of a personage whose physiognomy, very 
long and lean, differs most widely from the oval and strongly 
marked face of the Admiral — an aspect noble, clear, and lit up 



187 



by genius. Neither the hair which adorns the temples of 
the Neapolitan figure with symmetrical and elegant locks, 
nor the whiskers and long beard, nor the curls smoothly 
arranged, were seen, save in rarest exceptions, in the age of 
Ferdinand and Isabella, either in Spain or in Italy, or in 
other civilized regions of Europe; much less up to the first 
years of Charles V. could any one meet with a slashed 
German red cap with plume and gold studs. The same may 
be said concerning other parts of the attire — as the silk sleeves 
hooked by fillets, lace about the hands, gloves, a finger ring 
and other refinements which characterize a finished gallant 
of the sixteenth century." 

A copy of the Muhoz portrait (reproduced in this volume) 
was presented to the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts by R. 
W. Mead in 1818. The original is in the possession of the 
Duke of Veragua. Professor Butler quotes an eminent 
Spanish artist as saying: "Its date cannot be earlier than 
the end of the seventeenth century ; it has whiskers and 
ruffles which were unknown for more than one generation 
after Columbus." The same avithor points out the differences 
in the physiognomy of the De Bry portrait (frontispiece) and 
the descriptions of the Admiral, and states that the preten- 
sions of this portrait to be a life likeness have been ex- 
ploded by Navarrete. But Feuillet de Conches, the famous 
French savant, observes that it is entirely probable that 
Columbus sat to a Flemish painter, one of the numerous 
students of the school of Van Eyck who were widely scat- 
tered over Spain and Portugal. It has been engraved thir- 
teen times between 1595 and 1862. 

The portrait by Thevet engraved in 1585 (reproduced in 
this volume) differs from the Giovio, which preceded it but 
ten years, and from the Capriolo and De Bry, which fol- 
lowed it ten years later, in so many essential particulars as 
to raise many doubts as to its authenticity. It is character- 
ized by a writer in the Aihencrum (July, 1892) as the miss- 
ing link in the chain of Columbus portraits. Mr. Curtis thinks 
it more like an astrologer of the Middle Ages than a sea- 
man. Thevet does not give the source from which it was 
obtained. It was adopted by Bullart for his collection pub- 

188 



lished at Brussels in 1682. The reader has the opportunity 
of comparing the two portraits esteemed most likely to be 
portraits of the discoverer and to have had a common 
origin, viz., the Giovio (1575) and the Capriolo (1596), with 
the De Bry (1595), alleged by that author to have been 
painted from life ; the Thevet (1584), the source of which 
has not been traced, and which differs greatly from them 
all ; and finally with the Parmigiano and the Mufioz, which 
represent persons who did not resemble each other, nor the 
originals of the early engraved pictures. 



189 



LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 



Frank Abbott. 

Rev. Madam Alden. 

Henry Amy. 

Conrad Bachem. 

Thomas Barrett. 

Louis Benziger. 

Nicholas C. Benziger. 

John Bolen. 

John J Brady. 

George Brown. 

Jas. Buckley, M.D., Roch. 

Rev. J. E. Burke. 

Rt. Rev. M. F. Burke, Wy. 

J. N. Butler, M.D. 

Very Rev. Wm. Byrne, V.G. 

Cornelius Callahan. 

Rev. M. Callaghan. 

L. J. Callanan. 

Very Rev. T. J. Campbell, S.J. 

Hon. John Lee Carroll. 

Thomas M. Clancy. 

Wm. F. Clare. 

Richard H. Clarke, LL.D. 

P. E. Clarke, Pa. 

Jas. W. Cole. 

Geo. B. Coleman. 

Hon. James S. Coleman. 

d. c. connell. 

Wm. T. Connolly, Mass. 

Rt. Rev. John J. Conroy. 

Most Rev. M. A. Corrigan. 

Hon. Frederic R. Coudert. 

Terence F. Curley. 

Hon. John D. Crimmins. 



Augustin Daly. 

James Daly, Ga. 

Hon. Joseph F. Daly. 

Jas. a. Deering. 

Joseph Dillon. 

Peter Doelger. 

C. W, Doherty. 

Dominican Fathers, N. Y. 

f. x. donaghuk. 

Andrew Dougherty. 

Victor J. Dowling. 

R. F. Downing. 

Michael Doyle, Roch. 

Cornelius T. Driscoll, Conn. 

James J. Duffy. 

Rev. T. a. Dyson, O.P., Cal. 

Frank A. Ehret. 

Most Rev. Wm. Henry Elder. 

Thos, A. Emmet, M.D. 

Wm. J. Fanning. 

Edward D. Farrell. 

John H. Farrell. 

Patrick Farrelly. 

Rev. Thos. A. Field, O.S.A. 

Wm. Hildreth Field. 

Rt. Rev. L. M. Fink, Kan. 

Rt. Rev. E. Fitzgerald, Ark. 

Jeremiah Fitzpatrick. 

Jas. J. Fitzpatrick. 

Rev. Edward L. Fladung, O. 

Rev. Jas. J. Flood. 

John R. Foley. 

C. V. Fornes. 

Franciscan Fathers, N. Y. 



J. FuREY, P.M., U. S. Navy. 

Rev. Mother M. Gabriel, Tex. 

Rt. Rev. H. Gabriels. 

Thos. p. Galligan, Jr. 

Rev. James M. Galligan. 

Rev. T. J. Gannon, S.J. 

Michael Giblin. 

Hon. Wm. R. Grace. 

J. H. Haaren. 

M. H. Hagerty. 

J. Henry Haggerty. 

Frank Hall, N. J. 

M. J. Harson, R. I. 

Very Rev. J. A. Hartnett. 

John W. Healy. 

Rt. Rev. Jas. Aug. Healy, Me. 

Henry Heide. 

Henry J. Heidenis. 

Most Rev. John Hennessy. 

Francis Higgins. 

Robert J. Hoguet. 

Rt. Rev. Ign. F. Horstmann,0. 

John Howley. 

Francis D. Hoyt. 

Rev. N. J. Hughes. 

Geo. C. Hurlbut, 

Laurence Hutton. 

T. W. Hynes. 

Michael Jenkins, Md. 

James G. Johnson. 

John P. Kane. 

Rt. Rev. J. J. Keane, D.C. 

Thos. J. Kearney. 

John D. Keiley, Jr. 

Eugene Kelly. 

Anthony Kelly, Minn. 

Wm. J. K. Kenny. 

John J. Kennedy. 

J. A. Kernan. 



Patrick Kiernan. 

F. Kleeckner. 

Frank S. Lannon. 

George Parsons Lathrop. 

F. Leary, N. J. 

Thomas B. Lee. 

Very Rev. M. D. Lilly, O.P. 

R. J. Lyons. 

Francis J. Markham. 

Simon J. Martin, Pa. 

Rt. Rev. M. Marty, O.S.B. 

Edward J. Meegan. 

Mercantile Library, N. Y. 

John McAnerney. 

John McAtamney. 

John McCann. 

Rev. F. J. McCarthy, S.J. 

John H. McCarthy. 

David McClure. 

Rev. Chas. McCready, D.D. 

Rt. Rev. C. E. McDonnell. 

Rev. J. H. McGean, M.R. 

Joseph McGuire. 

Joseph P. McHugh. 

Rev. J. P. MclNCROV^f. 

Joseph I. McKeon. 

Jas. McMahon. 

Rev. Jos. H. McMahon. 

Very Rev. P. J. McNamara. 

Rt. Rev. B. J. McQuaid, Roch. 

Rt. Rev. S. G. Messmer, Wis. 

Rev. J. H. Mitchell. 

John J. Mitchell. 

Rev. John Molitor, 111. 

E. Aloysius Moore. 

Rt. Rev. Francis Mora, Cal. 

Juan F. Morales. 

Dr. James Moran. 

Joseph F. Mosher. 



m. g. mullowney. 

James B. Mulry. 

John Murphy. 

Charles S . Murray, Ont. 

Thos. a. Murray. 

Henry Murray. 

General John Newton. 

Rev. B. M. O'Boylan, O. 

Joseph O'Brien. 

Hon. Morgan J. O'Brien. 

Rev. John O'Brien, Mass. 

Hon. Miles M. O'Brien. 

John H. O'Connor, M.D. 

L. J. O'Connor. 

Hon. Joseph J. O'Donohue. 

Louis V. O'Donohue. 

Francis O'Neil. 

F. C. O'Reilly, N. J. 

John O'Sullivan. 

Frank A. Otis. 

A. M. Palmer. 

Very Rev.W. O'B. Pardow, S.J. 

C. H. Pennell. 

James H. Phelan. 

James J. Phelan. 

A. K. Quinn, R. I. 

Very Rev. Mgr. H. De Regge. 

Antonio Reynes. 

Rev. J. H. Richards, S.J., D.C. 

Henry Ridder. 

Herman Ridder. 

Hon. Geo. F. Roesch. 

John J. Rooney. 

Rev. Mother M. Rosina. 

Rt. Rev. S. V. Ryan, CM. 

Thomas F. Ryan. 

Isadore H. Sampers. 

Robert A. Sassen. 

Rev. p. M. Schaefer, O.S.P., O. 



Rev. J. Scully, S.J., Pa. 

Rt. Rev. R. Seidenbush, O.S.B. 

Mortimer F. Shea. 

Andrew J. Shipman. 

Sisters of Charity, E. B'way. 

Sisters ofCharity, St. Gabriel's. 

James Slattery. 

Chas. W. Sloane. 

Edward Smith. 

John R. Smith. 

James Smith. 

John H. Spellman. 

John Streetman. 

C. Sullivan. 

J. V. Sweeney, M.D. 

Rev. J. Taafe. 

Rev. M. a. Taylor. 

The Lotos Club, 

A. Thiery. 

Joseph Thoron. 

P. S. Trainer. 

Jas. F. Trant, M.D. 

Francis C. Travers. 

Richard S. Treacy. 

James J. Traynor. 

Jas. J. Treanor. 

T. Wolfe Tone. 

Rt. Rev. P. Verdaguer, Tex. 

Rev. H. Victor, Minn. 

W. E. Wagerman, D. C. 

Rev. F. H. Wall. 

Augustine Walsh. 

A. Walsh. 

Michael Walsh, LL.D. 

John Whalen. 

Most Rev. J. J. Williams, Mass. 

Thos. Willis. 

Very Rev. T. WOcher, S.P.M. 




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